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THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE 


BOOKS BY ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS, 

IN '‘SONS OF THE REPUBLIC" SERIES. 


A SON OF THE REVOLUTION. Being the Story of 
Young Tom Edwards, Adventurer, and how he 
Labored for Liberty and Fought it out with his 
Conscience — in the Days of Burr’s Conspiracy. 
301 pages. With Six Illustrations by Frank T. Merrill. 
8vo. Cloth. ^1.50. 

THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. Being the Story 
OF Young Joe Harvey, and how he Found the Way 
TO Duty in the Days of Webster and Jackson and 
THE Conspiracy of that American Adventurer, 
Eleazer Williams, sometimes called “ The False 
Dauphin.” 333 pages. With Five Illustrations by 
Frank T. Merrill. 8vo. Cloth. ^1.50. 





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AND SO THIS IS WHERE THE BATTLE WAS FOUGHT?”’ 




The Godson of Lafayette 


Being the Story of Young Joe Harvey, and how he 
found the way to Duty in the days of Webster 
and Jackson and the Consfiracy of that 
American adventurer, Eleazer 
Williams, sometimes called 
^^The False Dauphin ” 


BY 

t 

ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS 

Author of “A Son of the Revolution,” “ feiiSTORic Boys,” “The Century 
Book for Young Americans,” “ The True Story of Lafayette,” 

“ Historic Americans,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK T. MERRILL 



45383 


l.il3rk«« y f.t . '0im 

"'Ul * -•»♦« 

SEP 10 1900 

O^jfrt^fli •ntry 

ir/^6^ 

*•.0 4 . /. S .^.^. P ..... 

S£C(w ronr. 

DIVISION, 

SEP 11L1900 


Orr 


q. ^ 


Copyright, 1900, 

By W. a. Wilde Company. 
All rights reserved. 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

74560 







PREFACE. 


‘ As the second in the series of “ Sons of the Repub- 
lic ” this book deals with a peculiar phase of American 
history, and with a man who yet remains a mystery 
and an enigma in spite of denials and explanations. 

Into the most notable part of the story of Eleazer 
Williams, — his claim to have been the lost Dauphin 
of France, — this book does not enter. Mr. Wight and 
others who have gone ca^-efully into the details seem 
to have disproved his story and destroyed his claim, 
— and still it is as great a mystery as when, fifty years 
ago, the land was all agog with the inquiry, “ Have 
we a Bourbon amongst us?” 

But upon the part of Eleazer Williams’s life that 
was vital to the interests and unity of the republic 
this Story is especially based, — his crazy dream of 
empire, by which he hoped to unite the Indians of 
America into one great Confederacy which should 
dominate and control the mighty West, and become 
at once a menace and a barrier to the peaceful expan- 
sion of the republic. 


5 


6 


PREFACE. 


The scheme failed, as have all such designs, from 
the conspiracy of Aaron Burr, to the shaky sequels to 
the Civil War. But for a while it held a certain 
amount of threat and danger, led at least one young 
fellow to follow the fortunes of Eleazer Williams, and 
ended only amid the after-happenings of Black Hawk’s 
War, which did so much toward expanding and devel- 
oping the great Northwest. 

I wish to make acknowledgment for material assist- 
ance in this story to my friend, Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites, 
of the Wisconsin Historical Society, to Mr. W. W. 
Wight for his exhaustive study of Eleazer Williams, 
and to the Historico-Genealogical Society of Massa- 
chusetts for access to their treasures of local histories 
and monographs. 

With the hope that young Joe Harvey, the godson 
of Lafayette, may prove equal in interest to young 
Tom Edwards, the son of the Revolution, I add this 
book to the series to which it belongs, and repeat the 
hope that the relation between the sons of the Revo- 
lution and the makers of the West may be recognized 
and appreciated by all who read what I have here set 
down. 

ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS. 


Boston, February 22, 1900. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

1. 

The Man in the One-hokse Shay 



PAGE 

II 

II. 

The Master of Two Empires . 



. 24 

III. 

How Joe yielded to Temptation 



. 38 

IV. 

On the Site of the Treasury . 



• 51 

V. 

Joe hears a Great Speech 



. 67 

VI. 

Joe Harvey’s Princely Retinue 



. 78 

VII. 

Cornelius Bear patches up a Truce 


• 93 

VIII. 

Mr. Webster’s Bicycle Ride 



. 108 

IX. 

Why Governor Cass said no 



. 126 

X. 

How Black Hawk helped . 



. 142 

XI. 

The Value of a Godfather 



. 163 

XII. 

Daniel Bread takes a Stand . 



. 179 

XIII. 

How Joe rode into Camp . 



. 200 

XIV. 

Captain Abraham Lincoln’s Good Advice 

• 223 

XV. 

Simply a Question of Duty 



. 242 

XVI. 

Joe Harvey sees the Light 



• 263 

XVII. 

A Fallen Moses .... 



. 283 

XVIII. 

What the President said . 



. 300 

XIX. 

The Nobility of an American . 



. 320 


7 
















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PAGE 

“ ^ And so this is where the battle was fought ’ ” Frontispiece i6 
“ Thank you, son ; you’re a friend in need . . .60 

“ The President looked . . . upon his decapitated effigy ” . 129 
‘‘ ‘ See here, little girl, . . . don’t you be frightened . . 218 'Z 

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THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE MAN IN THE ONE-HORSE SHAY. 

T he sun was shining brightly, the birds were sing- 
ing merrily, as young Joe Harvey rode the white 
colt down to the ford. There is a bridge across the 
ford to-day; but, when Joe Harvey was a boy, the only 
way over the creek was to follow the road that led 
into the stream and follow the road that led out of 
the stream, where to the east it traversed the fertile 
farm lands, or to the west climbed the hill with the 
old “ Baltimore pike.” 

Joe Harvey was whistling quite as cheerily as the 
birds were singing as he rode the white colt into the 
creek. For, even though he were bound with his two 
sacks of corn to Gibson’s Mill, the “chore” was not 
an objectionable one, and he had the whole afternoon 
before him in which to do it. 

To be sure, he might have gone to Gibson’s by the 
Creek Road in much less time, but the fact was there 


12 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

was an unsettled feud between Joe Harvey and certain 
of the boys on the Creek Road, and a journey in that 
direction called for reenforcements. So, as he was 
going alone, Joe chose the Bottom Road, as it was 
called, which crossed the Brandywine at Chadd’s Ford. 
For, all things considered, Joe had decided that, in 
this case at least, the longest way ’round would certainly 
be the shortest way home. 

“Especially,” he argued with himself, “if you count 
the time it would take to have it out with those ras- 
cally boys on the Creek Road.” 

Besides, the Bottom Road was historic, and Joe 
Harvey never forded the Brandywine at Chadd’s and 
climbed the wooded incline of the old Baltimore pike 
without recalling his father’s story of the famous fight 
at the ford that dreadful September day in 1777, when 
Cornwallis and his redcoats, and Knyphausen with his 
Hessians, fourteen thousand destroying troopers alto- 
gether, made that very stream run red with the blood 
of the contesting foemen, British and patriots, as they 
stubbornly battled to win or to defend the ford, and 
then strung the fierce fight over the meadows and along 
the ridge to Birmingham meeting-house and Dillworth- 
town. 

Joe was a friendly enough fellow, and yet he was 
a good deal of a fighter, as suited the mingled Conti- 


THE MAN IN THE ONE-HORSE SHAY. 


13 


nental blood of Harveys and Garrets that flowed in his 
veins. Whatever he had to face he faced manfully, 
whether it were a long furrow or the Creek Road boys ; 
and he had a way, too, of living things over in his 
restless brain. So, again and again, as he crossed the 
willow-bordered stream, he had peopled the place with 
the fierce contestants of that famous Revolutionary 
battle, as now Knyphausen and his Hessians came 
thundering down the forest-flanked pike, or now Wayne 
and his Continentals, under the cover of Proctor’s re- 
doubt, charged into the shallow stream to dispute its 
passage and hurl the Hessians back. 

Even now, as, astride the white colt, with the bulg- 
ing corn-sacks, like another Proctor’s redoubt, guarding 
him on either side, he had halted midway through the 
creek, he levelled his stout hickory cudgel as if it were 
his father’s old queen’s-arm musket, and, pretending 
that he was one of Wayne’s Continentals, almost 
imagined he could hear the heavily accoutred Hessians 
clattering down the pike. 

He did, in fact, hear something; and, whatever it 
was, it was clattering down the pike, sure enough. 
Still standing in mid-stream with his cudgel poised, 
musket-fashion, he drew an imaginary bead on the 
approaching Hessians, determined to hold the ford at 
any cost, especially if, as he half suspected, the Hes- 


14 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


sians should prove to be some of those objectionable 
Creek Road boys, who had heard of his roundabout 
expedition and had hurried across country to the Bot- 
tom Road to cut him off. 

But neither Hessians nor Creek boys were clattering 
down the pike. Instead, it was a rattling old one- 
horse “ shay,” drawn by a limping roan, the driver of 
which was anxiously peering out to see where the hill 
would bring him, and to get some idea of the depth 
of the water at the ford. 

He looked relieved when he spied young Joe Harvey 
halted in mid-stream with the water scarcely up to the 
white colt’s knees ; but when he saw the levelled cudgel 
he popped back into the shelter of the “ shay ” and 
drew up sharply at the water’s edge. 

There were stories afloat of a certain bold highway- 
man who had an uncomfortable way of “ holding up ” 
travellers in just such a manner at the fords of the 
Brandywine, and to the exaggerated senses of the rider 
in the one-horse shay this stout boy on the white 
colt, with a cudgel at his shoulder, became a deter- 
mined highwayman on a big horse and with a musket 
levelled at the “ stand and deliver ” poise. 

“ What’s the trouble .? ” he called out from the partial 
protection of the high dash-board. “ Ford’s all safe, 
isn’t it, sir.?” 


THE MAN IN THE ONE-HORSE SHAY. 1 5 

- Sir! Joe Harvey liked to be called sir. It sounded 
quite grown up and dignified, and young Joe really 
was a stout-looking boy for his years. 

“All right, sir,” he replied heartily, lowering his 
misunderstood cudgel. “The water isn’t up to your 
hubs to-day. You can drive right through.” 

The stranger still eyed the boy’s big stick sus- 
piciously. 

“What are you doing there, son.?” he inquired. 

Joe laughed merrily. “I do believe he’s afraid of 
me,” he chuckled to himself. 

“ Oh, I’m only going to the mill, sir,” he replied. “ I 
was just making believe I was one of the Continentals 
and that you were a Hessian coming down the pike. 
They had a fight here, you know.” 

“Sure enough; this is Chadd’s Ford, isn’t it — where 
the battle of Brandywine was fought .? ” the stranger 
remarked. “Well, I’m only a peaceful traveller, son, 
and no Hessian at all, so you needn’t thirst for my 
blood. But I did think your stick was a musket. Is 
there a blacksmith beyond .? My horse has cast a shoe.” 

“So I thought from the way he limped,” said Joe, 
looking at the road. “Have you come far.?” 

“From Lancaster,” the stranger replied; “bound 
for Philadelphia. It’s a vile road, too. Where shall 
I find the blacksmith, my son.?” 


I 6 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

“Up the road a bit — half a mile or so,” Joe replied; 
“you can’t miss it. It’s just where the Creek Road 
turns off from the village. You can find it easily. 
I’d like to help you if I can, though; can I.?” 

The one-horse shay lumbered into the creek, the 
water cascading from its heavy wheels. 

“I thank you, son; but I reckon I shan’t need your 
help,” the stranger said. “You’ve got your corn to grind.” 

Then, as he reined up abreast the white colt, midway 
in the stream, he looked at Joe closely; looked at the 
road as it stretched from the ford to the village ; looked 
up and down the placid Brandywine winding through 
the meadow and beneath its leaning willows. 

“And so this was where the battle was fought, you 
say, eh ? ” he remarked ; “ General Washington was in 
it, wasn’t he } ” 

“Yes, sir,” Joe replied, “and so were Greene and 
Wayne. I’d like to have been in Wayne’s command. 
My father was, and Lafayette was there, too. He was 
just a volunteer, my father says; he didn’t have any 
command. But up on the ridge yonder toward Bir- 
mingham meeting-house, he turned back a lot of fel- 
lows who were retreating, and that’s where he was 
wounded — up in the woods there. I’ve seen the spot. 
You know who Lafayette was, sir; he was the French- 
man, you know.” 


THE MAN IN THE ONE-HORSE SHAY. 


i; 

The man in the one-horse shay smiled at the boy’s 
proffered information. 

“Yes, I know who he was,” he answered; “I knew 
Lafayette.” 

“ You did, sir ! knew him to speak to ? So did my 
father,” Joe cried excitedly, and then he hazarded 
more information. “I’m named for the general,” he 
said. 

“Named for Lafayette.? Is that so.?” said the 
stranger. “ By the way, what is your name, my 
son .? ” 

“Joseph Lafayette Harvey,” replied the boy, proudly. 
“ I’m Cap’n Harvey’s boy. That’s our house up on 
the ridge yonder,” and he pointed out a comfortable, 
rambling white farmhouse on the upland slope, toward 
Birmingham meeting-house. 

“Joseph Lafayette.? That’s a funny combination,” 
the stranger commented, with a smile. “ How did 
your father happen to name you that .? ” 

“Why, General Lafayette asked him to, sir,” young 
Joe replied. “ I’m a godson of Lafayette.” 

“A godson, eh,” the man in the one-horse shay 
remarked. “ Why, I didn’t think you had such things 
as godsons and godfathers in this Quaker region.” 

“We don’t have many of ’em, sir; but I’m one of 
them,” Joe responded with evident pride. “That’s 


I 8 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

what Lafayette wanted me to be — his godson. And 
that’s what I am.” 

“ Why, was he around here when you were born ? ” 
queried the stranger. 

“Oh, no, I was six years old,” Joe replied; and then 
he added, happy to be able to explain, “I’ll tell you 
how it was. You see. General Lafayette came to see 
my father when he was up here visiting the old battle 
ground. My father was in the fight and so was the 
general. My father, Cap’n Harvey, helped Lafayette 
rally the fellows who were retreating, and the gen- 
eral thought a heap of my father. So of course he 
called to see my father. And I saw him. I was a 
little fellow, but I can remember him.” 

“ That was in ’24, I suppose ; when the general was 
visiting America .? ” the stranger said. 

“Yes, sir,” Joe rattled on. “And he went with 
father and hunted up the very spot where he was 
wounded, back of our house on the edge of the woods. 
I can show it to you, if you want me to. They had 
a grand, good time together, my father and the gen- 
eral, I reckon, and when they got back to the house 
the general he took me on his knee, — I can re- 
member just how he looked, sir, — and he asked my 
father what my name was, and when my father told 
me to tell the general my name, the general patted 


THE MAN IN THE ONE-HORSE SHAY. 


19 


me on the head and asked my father if I had been 
christened. Of course I had been, you know ; so then 
the general said he’d like to have some one here that 
would be a sort of reminder of his pleasant visit to 
the old camping ground. Then he told my father 
that if he could add his name to mine, he would like 
to stand godfather to me, if my father would not 
object. He said he knew that the time to stand as 
godfather was when a boy was christened, but as he 
was too late for that couldn’t my father get the min- 
ister and have it done, even if it was late. So my 
father said yes, and the minister came, and the gen- 
eral took hold of my hand and said something, and 
so did the minister; and that’s how I came to be 
named Joseph Lafayette Harvey, and to be a godson 
of Lafayette.” 

Joe paused, quite out of breath from his long story, 
which he told so glibly that it was evident .he had 
heard the tale many times, and was very proud to 
tell it. 

“ So the general stood sponsor for you, did he, long 
after your name day ? ” the man in the one-horse shay 
remarked. 

“I suppose that’s what you call it/’ Joe replied, 
“though I never heard it called anything but just 
godson. Well, then the general gave father ten dol- 


20 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


lars for my name-day gift and a silver snuff-box with 
his initials and his crest on it — he’s a real marquis, 
you know. They’re both of ’em up to my house. 
Wouldn’t you like to see them ? ” 

“ Why, yes, I should, my son,” the stranger replied. 
“ They would be most interesting to me ; for, you see, 
I’m a godson of Lafayette, too.” 

“No! Is that so.? You are.?” cried young Joe 
Harvey, excitedly. “Well, that’s funny now, isn’t it.? 
How did that happen .? Anything like my way .? ” 

“ No, quite differently,” the man in the one-horse 
shay replied. “ You see the marquis protected me once, 
when I was even younger than you were and when my 
father and mother were in great danger. There was a 
cruel mob about them, just howling for their blood, but 
Lafayette held the murderers back ; and when one of 
the mob told my mother to fling me out to them or 
they would come and take me, Lafayette just took 
me in his arms, drew his sword, and held it before 
me. Then he walked down the stairs. ‘ Make way 
for the godson of Lafayette 1 ’ he said, and the mob 
let us pass.” 

Joe Harvey’s eyes were big with wonder. 

“ Oh, did he do all that for you .? ” he cried. “ Wasn’t 
it grand ! Where was it, anywhere near here .? ” 

“ Bless the boy I no,” returned the stranger with a 


The man in The one-horsE shay. 


21 


smile ; “ that was thousands of miles from here, far 
across the sea, in France.” 

“In France!” cried Joe, “why, are you a French- 
man, sir } I didn’t know it.” 

The stranger nodded. 

Joe Harvey looked at him critically now. A godson 
of Lafayette was of deeper interest to him than clatter- 
ing Hessians or a Creek Road boy. 

The man in the one-horse shay was a stout, well-built 
man, somewhat swarthy of face, dark-haired, and of 
pleasant features. He seemed of middle age; he was 
plainly, almost poorly, dressed, and wore a “ dicky ” 
and white neckcloth, much like the minister in the vil- 
lage, Joe thought. He had a broad, almost lazy kind 
of smile which came easily where anything amused him 
and which broadened now into a laugh as he caught 
Joe’s earnest gaze of interest and wonder. 

“ By crickey ! ” cried the boy, heedless whether the 
man in the one-horse shay was a minister or not, so 
exciting was his story, “that was a better thing than 
happened to me, though, wasn’t it; and I’m pretty 
proud of my name and the way I came by it, too. 
And did you get off all right, sir .? ” 

The stranger raised a hand in protest. “ Ah ! ask 
me no more, my son,” he said, “ I shudder to think of 
it. But here I am, you see, alive and hearty, to-day. 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

It is better to think of the future than of the past, even 
though the past may have been crowded with wonders. 
So I must think of that blacksmith ; ” and with that the 
stranger gathered up the reins and urged the roan to 
the shore. 

Joe wheeled the white colt to the right about and 
followed the one-horse shay out of the ford. Then he 
rode close to the wheel and looked again and earnestly 
at this other godson of Lafayette. 

“Two of us!” he exclaimed, “and meeting here, 
knee-deep in water at Chadd’s Ford ! It’s the queer- 
est thing I ever had happen,” he declared. And 
then he burst out with the query, “ Who are you, 
sir .? ” 

The man in the one-horse shay made no immediate 
answer to the question. 

“The blacksmith’s shop is straight ahead, is it.?” he 
said. 

“ Yes, sir, half a mile beyond here at the cross- 
road,” replied Joe, still keeping close to the wheel ; for, 
as he said to himself, “ he don’t get rid of me like that, 
if I can help it.” Then he said aloud, “ but please, sir. 
I’m awfully curious to know about you and Lafayette. 
Who are you, sir .? ” 

The man in the one-horse shay looked about him, to 
right and to left, doubtfully ; he shook his head as if in 


THE MAN IN THE ONE-HORSE SHAY. 


23 


denial of Joe’s request; then leaning far out of the 
“shay” he brought his broad face close to the boy’s 
strained and excited features and, almost in a whisper, 
answered Joe’s query. 

“ I am the king of France,” he said. 


CHAPTER II. 


THE MASTER OF TWO EMPIRES. 

Y oung joe Harvey was so amazed and startled at 
this unexpected announcement that he very nearly 
lost his balance in his seat between the corn-sacks, 
and only caught himself and his breath by sheer good 
fortune. 

“ Why ! the man must be crazy,” was his first thought ; 
and then, remembering that he had heard that crazy 
people should be humored if they were to be restrained 
from the violence that contradiction often occasioned, 
he said, forcing a laugh, “The — king, — of — France! 
Is that so, sir.? Why, what are you doing so far away 
from home, in this republican country .? ” 

“You don’t believe me, my young friend. You 
think I am crazy,” the man in the one-horse shay 
remarked, without any evidence of excitement. “ I 
don’t wonder. I expected you to be surprised. The 
fact is, you surprised me into a confession that I do 
not often make. But you see your story of Lafayette 
and how you became his godson awoke a responsive 


24 


THE MASTER OF TWO EMPIRES. 25 

chord in my own breast, and led me into a confidence 
I try to avoid. There is not much sympathy with 
kings and princes in this country, you know, and it 
is always hard for an exile to establish his claim to a 
throne.” 

The evident sincerity of his strange acquaintance 
rather shook Joe Harvey’s faith in the “insanity plea,” 
and his mind wavered between doubt and interest. 
Still, Joe felt that it behooved him to be cautious. 

“But why are you here, sir.?” he queried. “I 
thought a king always sat on a throne with a gold 
crown on his head.” And the contrast between the 
regal state of a king and this stout, clerical-looking 
party, whose only throne was a rickety one-horse shay 
and whose crown was a battered beaver hat, so stirred 
young Joe Harvey’s ready sense of the ridiculous that 
his look of surprise shifted to the open smile of 
incredulity. 

“ I confess this isn’t the state in which a king usu- 
ally travels, my son,” the stranger replied, answering 
smile with smile ; “ but I told you I was an exile, you 
know. Come; ride on to your blacksmith’s with me, 
and, while he is shoeing my horse, let me tell you my 
own strange story.” 

The offer was a most attractive one, and Joe yielded 
easily. He headed the white colt for the blacksmith’s 


26 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


at the cross-road, the man in the one-horse shay follow- 
ing at his heels. 

As they rode along, Joe Harvey pondered over this 
singular and perplexing burst of confidence to which 
he had been admitted. 

“ If that man is not crazy,” so Joe argued with him- 
self, “ he may be telling the truth. There’s no reason 
why he should lie to me, and I can’t see where the 
joke would be if he were just fooling me. Suppose 
he should be king — king of France! whew!” 

Joe could find no words adequate to the occasion, 
even in the unformed language of self-consultation. 
He had heard something of the things that had hap- 
pened in France since the days when Lafayette was 
young. He knew how the king who helped America 
had been overthrown, how his people had tried to 
govern themselves like the Americans, how Napoleon 
had risen and fallen, and how, once again, a king was 
on the throne of France. 

A boy named for a Frenchman would naturally be 
interested in French affairs if he were wide-awake and 
inquisitive — and Joe Harvey was both. But, he ar- 
gued, if the king were in power again, what was this 
king doing here in America, in a rickety, one-horse 
shay at Chadd’s Ford on the Brandywine.? Joe knew 
about exiles and refugees; he had seen two or three 


THE MASTER OF TWO EMPIRES. 2/ 

of them, and one, at least,' had lived in the village. 
People said this refugee was a French nobleman — a 
count or something, Joe remembered; he recollected, 
too, that the count had gone back to France when the 
king came to the throne again. But to see a real 
king ! why, this was a new experience. 

Joe felt himself exceptionally favored, and although, 
like a good republican, he had been brought up in the 
belief that kings and princes were unnecessary indi- 
viduals who had no right to exist, and were to be 
regarded as altogether useless and objectionable in free 
America, still, a king was a king, and the glamour 
of royalty had alike a novelty and a fascination for a 
boy like young Joe Harvey, who was at once a practi- 
cal young American and a dreamer of dreams as welh 

This was all rather serious work for Joe. But, by 
the time he reached the blacksmith’s, he had almost 
convinced himself that there might be some truth in 
the stranger’s claim. At all events he was bound to 
hear that story, and when, by a lucky chance, he 
came upon one of his special chums, Dick Cheese- 
borough of Chandler’s Ford farm, loitering about the 
forge, he was delighted to make a bargain with Dick 
to carry his corn for him to Gibson’s Mill and thus 
give him a free afternoon to talk things over with the 
king of France. Of course, though, he kept this 


28 


THE GODSON OF lAfAYETTK. 


question of identity to himself and did not acquaint 
Dick Cheeseborough with the rank or title of his new 
acquaintance. There are some confidences you can’t 
share even with your best friend, you know. 

They left the roan and the one-horse shay at the 
blacksmith’s, and, together, the king of France and 
young Joe Harvey of the hill farm, sought out a 
secluded and quiet nook, where Joe knew they would 
not be disturbed. There, sitting Turk-fashion on the 
grass, Joe awaited the promised story, doubting, 
though half inclined toward belief. Strange things 
happened in the world, Joe knew; why, then, should 
it not be possible, he reasoned, that this clerical-look- 
ing stranger might really be a king — exiled, perhaps, 
but still the king.? 

“ Did you ever hear of the Dauphin of France, Joe 
Harvey .? ” the stranger demanded. 

“ The Dauphin ? Why, wasn’t he the little fellow 
who was son of the king that helped America — the 
king who had his head chopped off.?” queried Joe, 
who had heard from his father the story of that un- 
fortunate prince. 

“Yes, yes, my son,” the stranger replied. “That 
was Louis XVI., the friend of America during your 
Revolution. Well, he was my father. I am the Dau- 
phin of France.” 


THE MASTER OF TWO EMPIRES. 


29 


But you said you were the king, sir,” cried the 
puzzled Joe. 

“ The king being dead, the Dauphin becomes king,” 
the stranger explained. “ Louis XVI., my father, is 
dead. I was the Dauphin; now I am Louis XVII. 
of France. Le roi est mart; vive le roi!'' 

“Yes, sir,” said Joe, who, because he did not un- 
derstand the French words, was all the more im- 
pressed by the learning of the speaker. “ But I 
thought they killed you in prison. My father said 
they did. Just hammered the life out of you, or some- 
thing like that.” 

“They tried to, Joe; and they said that I died. But 
I got away,” the boy’s companion said. “ I was not 
murdered there in my prison in the Temple, nor did 
I die, as the story went abroad. I was smuggled 
away by friends of the king, my father — how, I know 
not, for I was as one dead. They hurried me out of 
the country, brought me across the seas to America, 
gave me to an Indian chief at Ticonderoga who had 
been a friend to the French; he brought me up as 
his son, and after I had been educated by some ex- 
cellent American people in Massachusetts and sent by 
them to Dartmouth College, I became a missionary to 
the Iroquois Indians of New York and those of the 
farther West. That is where I am now, my boy, 


30 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


away off in the Michigan country ; I, the rightful heir 
to the throne of France, buried among savages and 
voyageurs and borderers in a wild and distant Ameri- 
can wilderness.” 

“ And do they know that you are the king of 
France — the people among whom you live.?” in- 
quired Joe, deeply interested in this strange recital. 

“Few know it except myself, Joe, and you,” the 
exiled prince replied. “ I did not myself discover the 
truth until a short time since, for my Indian foster- 
father kept the secret close. And yet, all through 
my youth, there would come to me strange and misty 
memories of palaces and gardens, grand apartments 
crowded with richly dressed people, troops on parade, 
music and banners, and often — oh ! so often, of my- 
self a small child lying on a gorgeous robe with my 
head in a lady’s lap — my mother, Joe, the unfor- 
tunate Marie Antoinette ! Then came terrifying mem- 
ories of mobs and flight, a prison — and then, all 
would be a blank. See, my friend, here above my 
eye is a fearful scar; here on my knees and ankles 
are other scars and bruises, marks, as I now know, 
of that dreadful time in which I, a poor, neglected 
child, lived in that fearful prison with my cruel jailors, 
maltreated and abused.” 

Joe’s eyes were big with wonder at the story to 


THE MASTER OF TWO EMPIRES. 


31 


which he listened. To him the proof seemed un- 
doubted, for youth is quick to believe the marvellous 
and the adventurous. 

“ Why don’t you speak out and tell the whole 
world the truth he asked. 

“The time is not yet ripe for such disclosures,” his 
companion replied. “ I hide my desire and my duty 
as the real king beneath my present duty to my 
heavenly Master as his servant and missionary to the 
ignorant and barbarous redmen. I bide my time, Joe; 
but the time will come when, as the head and ruler 
of a mighty empire, I may publish my claim to the 
throne of France and reign the lord and master of 
two empires.” 

“Two empires, sir!” cried the doubly surprised Joe. 
“Why, where is that other one that you are king 
of .? ” 

“ That you shall know, all in good time, my friend,” 
the would-be monarch replied. “ I should not tell 
you now, for even yet the time is not ripe, and I 
should hold my peace. And yet I like you, Joe. 
You are fearless ; you are brave ; you have not made 
sport of my claims as would too many in this un- 
sympathetic republic. As godsons of the great 
Lafayette — you and I, my boy — there is between 
us a bond of sympathy, of fellow-feeling, almost a 


32 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


relationship. I might even call you my younger 
brother, Joseph Lafayette Harvey. Be silent and 
patient and I may yet be able to do great things 
for you. Would you like to change your life, my 
son, to raise yourself from a farmer’s boy whose 
hightest duty is to tote corn to a mill and become, 
instead, a leader, a prince and ruler in a mighty 
nation ? ” 

The suggestion sounded most attractive. Young 
Joe Harvey decided, without hesitation, that it was 
a grand offer. 

“Why does my being a godson of Lafayette give 
me such a chance, sir ? ” he queried. “ I don’t know 
as I should care to go to France. It is so far away, 
you see, and they have a way there of cutting your 
head off if they take a spite against you,’’ he added. 
“ I reckon I’m better off right here in America.’’ 

“And that is precisely where I mean you to ■ stay, 
Joe — here in America,’’ this master of two empires 
declared. “But America is a big land. The United 
States does not own everything yet, and I have a 
plan, a great and glorious plan, my brother, to 
which even my dreams of ruling in France give 
place. They are uncertain, and I may not, as yet, 
prove my claim. But let me once have the power 
and might to back my claims, and even those selfish 


THE MASTER OF TWO EMPIRES. 


33 


usurpers of my right across the sea shall hear me, be- 
cause they must, and will yield to the force that I 
can bring against them. Would you like to lead an 
army against these French usurpers, Joe, and gain 
fame and wealth and glory ? It is a chance that 
comes but once in a lifetime and can come to very, 
very few. Join me, come as my brother, and I can 
make you such a leader, when the time is ripe. Will 
you join me, Joseph.?” 

Joe Harvey was getting into deep water. This 
singular man, with his talk of two empires and an 
invasion of France, of fame and wealth and glory, 
was so filling the boy’s head with strange and confus- 
ing ideas that the young aspirant for adventure and 
renown was becoming decidedly mixed. Indeed, he 
found himself falling back upon the fear that his 
new acquaintance was, after all, either a crazy man, 
a joker, or a liar — Joe was uncertain which. 

“I don’t see what you mean, sir; I’m getting all 
mixed up,” he said. “ How can I become all the 
things you promise.?” 

“By working with me, Joe; by helping me in 
my great schemes,” the tempter replied. “You are 
young and strong and ambitious and reliable. I 
need just such young and vigorous blood as yours; 
I need a lad like you to be my confidant, my helper, 


34 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


and my son. I may not yet prove my claims to the 
throne of France, but the throne of an empire vaster 
than France, richer in opportunities, greater in power, 
lies open to my hand. It waits for me even now. 
I have but to grasp it — thus! and it is mine!” 

The stranger, roused by the glory of his dreams and 
his assurances, extended his open hand as if to secure 
his prize, and slowly closed it as if he were, in truth, 
gathering the guerdon within his grasp. Even a less 
ardent boy than Joe Harvey would have been moved 
by such enthusiasm and faith, and still even Joe hesi- 
tated. 

“ I don’t think my father would like to have me 
be a prince, sir,” he said slowly and cautiously. “ It 
don’t sound just right for a free American who doesn’t 
believe in such things ; and I don’t really know yet 
what you mean. Where is this empire you are talking 
about.? If it isn’t in France, where is it? There are 
no such things over here.” 

“ Ah, that is all you know about it, my younger 
brother,” the man who would be king replied. “ I 
know a land that stretches toward the setting sun — 
a great, a mighty land. It has vast fresh-water seas 
on which the navies of the world might ride; it has 
broad stretches of field and forest teeming with wealth 
to be had only for the asking; it is peopled with a 


THE MASTER OF TWO EMPIRES. 


35 


wild and valiant race whose chief delight is war and 
conquest; there the women are the workers, the men 
are the warriors. United as I can make them, those 
roving tribes can hold the world at bay, and I — I — 
the ill-treated and tortured Dauphin, the exiled king 
of France, neglected, wretched, unappreciated, almost 
unknown, may be king and emperor of this mighty 
r^alm, the master of great opportunities, the dictator 
of a continent, the fear or scourge of the world. All 
this I may be if I so desire, and as I can make my 
friends rich and powerful, so too can I make him whom 
I adopt as son, as brother, as associate, the sharer in 
my glory, — even, if I so will it, the successor to my 
power. Will you be that man, Joseph Harvey.? La- 
fayette, your godfather and mine, won fame and leader- 
ship before he was twenty years old. Be my com- 
panion, my associate and my son, and I will make you 
a greater than Lafayette. I like you, Joseph Harvey; 
I admire you as a brave and manly youth. I will train 
you to command and leadership, so that, when you are 
a man, you, too, may be ranked among the great ones 
of the earth, the lord of a mighty realm, prince, king, 
or emperor, as I may find you fitted to such high 
estate. Would you like it, Joe.?” 

Young Joe Harvey, as I have told you, though a 
practical youth, had still in him the romance of desire 


36 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

that made him often a dreamer of lofty dreams, a 
builder of air-castles, a prophet of great things for 
Joseph Harvey — when he should be a man. The 
offer of this king, as he had already come to consider 
the man of the one-horse shay, opened vast and gor- 
geous possibilities in the lad’s ambitious soul. His 
eyes grew big with desire, his face flushed with the 
excitement of the dream of wealth and glory. 

“Wouldn’t I, though, sir.?” he cried. “I’d show 
these folks about here what I could do. I’d make 
these Creek Road boys open their eyes. Where is this 
empire of yours .? Who are you, when — when you are 
not the king of France .? ” 

His companion smiled. The boy’s direct question 
brought him from his roseate dreams to everyday affairs. 

“ I am called Eleazer Williams, Joe, a missionary 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Indians of 
the West, a poor servant of the Lord in the forests of 
the Michigan territory about Green Bay.” 

“ A minister .? Why, sir, what is this empire you 
were talking about.? Where are you to start it, please.?” 
the boy asked, fearful that all the talk he had listened 
to had been misunderstood by him, and that he had 
simply fallen in with a religious enthusiast. But the 
answer of the Rev. Mr. Williams reassured even while 
it puzzled and startled him. 


The MASTiER OF Two EMPIRES. 3/^ 

“ It is the West, my boy, the great and teeming 
West,” Eleazer Williams replied, the light of power 
and possession flashing in his eyes. “ It is the bound- 
less West that stretches from the great lakes even 
to the mighty Pacific — the grandest empire ever given 
into the hands of man — as it shall be given into mine ! ” 


CHAPTER III. 


HOW JOE YIELDED TO TEMPTATION. 



HE West ! An empire in the West ! Why, that 


A all belongs to the United States, sir!” Joe ex- 
claimed, almost as greatly surprised by this startling 
intelligence as he had been at the stranger’s announce- 
ment that he was the king of France. 

“ How can you set up an empire there ” he asked ; 
“and who is there out West to rule ? Why, they’re just 
a lot of murderous, scalping Injuns. Dick Cheese- 
borough’s father was out there, and Dick knows all 
about it. You can’t make an empire with them if you 
tried ; and even if they were good for anything, you 
couldn’t make an empire if you wanted to. Because, 
don’t you see, that’s the United States of America, — 
that Western country is, — and you’d better not run up 
against the United States of America. You’d get shot 
as a traitor before you could say ‘Jack Robinson’ back- 
wards. I’m awfully disappointed. But, there 1 that’s 
just the way when I get interested in anything, it turns 
out good for nothing, every time. I thought you really 


I 


HOW JOE YIELDED TO TEMPTATION. 


39 


meant something, sir, and it’s just a big joke, that’s 
all ! ” 

Joe’s tone was almost pessimistic for so bright and 
hopeful a boy. But the visions of principalities and 
powers raised before his eyes by this clerical-looking 
man in the one-horse shay had been so swiftly dispelled 
that Joe felt almost as if he had a personal grievance 
against this make-believe king and would-be emperor, 
who was really only a travelling missionary, weak in 
his upper story, who had raised false hopes simply to 
destroy them. 

That was what Joe Harvey thought ; but this alleged 
“ son of Saint Louis,” whose real name seemed to be the 
Rev. Eleazer Williams, did not appear in the least dis- 
turbed by Joe Harvey’s indictment. Instead, he only 
smiled indulgently upon the disappointed lad, and laid a 
reassuring hand upon his shoulder. 

“You’re like all the rest, Joe,” he said at last, “quick 
to jump at conclusions. Do you think I would say such 
things to you just for a joke, or because I like to fool 
you ? No, my boy, I mean all that I have said, and with 
you and such as you to help me. I’ll make it all come 
to pass.” 

“ But how can you ? ” queried Joe Harvey, only 
partially reassured; “the West is the United States.” 

“By what right or justice.?” demanded Williams. 


40 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“By gift of the Indians.? No, sir. By purchase from 
France.? How can France sell what she never honestly 
owned .? The Indians are the original and rightful own- 
ers of the soil beyond the Mississippi ; they are the real 
owners of all the Northwest territory. By the help of 
our godfather, Lafayette, the thirteen colonies gained 
their independence; but they didn’t gain all North 
America. They were just a strip of land along the 
Atlantic; they did not extend beyond the Alleghanies. 
How, then, can they assume to own the land they never 
knew, a country stretching miles and miles away toward 
the far-off Pacific .? Do you know how .? ” 

Joe knitted his brows thoughtfully. The question 
of expansion and American imperialism was new in 
those early days. 

“ Well, I don’t know just how they do it,” he replied, 
“but they do, that’s sure.” 

“Yes, they say they own it and claim it by right of 
possession,” Williams retorted. “ But the actual resi- 
dent is the possessor, Joe Harvey, isn’t he.? And the 
actual resident of that splendid Western country is the 
red Indian, whose fathers and grandfathers, generations 
before him, occupied and owned the land over which I 
would rule — their empire and mine ! ” 

“ Yes, but how is it yours .? ” persisted Joe. “ How can 
you make it your empire ; what would the Injuns say .? ” 


HOW JOE YIELDED TO TEMPTATION. 


41 


“Say!” returned the other; “come with me, Joe 
Harvey; come with me to that mighty West and see. 
Come with me and see Black Hawk, — Black Sparrow 
Hawk, his real name is, — the warlike chief of the Sacs ; 
come and see White Cloud the Winnebago, who calls 
himself the prophet, the hater of the white man ; come 
and see Shaubena, and Keokuk, and Neapope, Oshkosh 
and White Crow, and other chiefs of the Wisconsins ; 
come and see the Oneidas, and the Tuscaroras, and 
the Senecas, and others of the Iroquois nations of New 
York, who share my dream of union ; come and see, 
too, how the Indians of the great Northwest remember 
and respect the French power, which England over- 
threw, but the memory of which survives in the brave 
voyageurs and courrier du bois, as well as in the Indian 
legends and the Indian speech ; come and see how, as 
the rightful king of France, I am the living representa- 
tive of that power which the redmen of the West 
feared and respected, and how, as king of France, I 
am, also, emperor of what was once, and still is, French 
possessions.” 

“ But France sold it to the United States, you said,” 
objected Joe, attracted, in spite of himself, by this allur- 
ing invitation. 

The missionary had lost himself in his own dream of 
empire. 


42 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“ Yes, sold it ! ” he replied with warmth ; “ but not by 
France, not by the real France. It was the usurper, 
the Corsican, the assassin of the France of King Louis, 
the spawn of rebellion and treason and murder ; it 
was Napoleon Bonaparte, self-styled emperor of the 
French, who sold my father’s land. The thief does not 
own the thing he steals. Bonaparte never owned France 
nor her possessions. My family are the real owners of 
France, and I, their living representative, have never 
consented to the sale of my American lands to the 
United States. Therefore they are still mine and, like 
a father among his people, I shall rule my faithful 
Indian subjects and build up the empire of the West, 
until united and invincible my warriors follow my 
standard and win for me my heritage of France. 

“ In all this work of upbuilding and union,” he con- 
tinued, “ I need a helper; I need a secretary — one who 
shall know my plans and thoughts, and be to me com- 
panion, assistant, and friend. Come with me, Joe Har- 
vey. Be you my helper, my companion, my secretary. 
My success shall be your success. Once firmly estab- 
lished on the throne of the West, I, Louis the Seven- 
teenth, by the grace of God king of France and 
emperor of America, will give you honors, titles, riches, 
fame and glory such as no boy in all America ever 
enjoyed before and none can ever exceed hereafter.” 


HOW JOE YIELDED TO TEMPTATION. 43 

Joe Harvey was so exalted and carried away by the 
reasoning, the enthusiasm, and the promises of this 
ardent and self-assumed potentate that prudence was 
stifled and caution was thrown to the winds. Air-castles, 
such as he had never before dreamed of, rose, like 
Aladdin’s palace, before his eyes. A boy of ambition 
is always attracted by the allurements of opportunity 
and the promise of power. To succeed, to rise, to “be 
somebody,” to win recognition as a leader and to gain 
honor from the world — these attract him more than the 
merely selfish and sordid idea of wealth. Every boy, 
however practical he may be, is an idealist, and is his 
own ideal. He longs to show the world what he can 
do, and if he thinks he can make this show both brill- 
iant and commanding, he is apt to yield to the tempta- 
tions of unsubstantial promises and the attractions of 
a visionary career. 

You must not wonder then if this honest but rest- 
lessly ambitious country lad of the quiet Pennsylvania 
hills was raised to unthinking enthusiasm by the proffer 
of the tempter, and became filled with sudden dreams of 
glory and of fame ; you need not marvel that he seized 
with avidity and accepted without question the specious 
logic and large assurances of this overwrought adven- 
turer who promised so generously and talked so well. 

Eleazer Williams could see by the flushed face and 


44 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


sparkling eyes of the boy that he was almost won. He 
liked and felt that he needed this spirited young fellow, 
and he shrewdly followed up his own lead. 

“You can write a good hand, Joe.? ” he asked.' 

Joe nodded; he was still speechless and castle- 
building. 

“ And you can ride, you can shoot, you are bold in 
adventure, you are fearless in action,” continued Will- 
iams, checking off the boy’s acquirements. “ See, now ! 
those are just what I need in my secretary, my trusted 
lieutenant, my aide-de-camp. In time you will become 
my right-hand man. Other boys not nearly so bright 
or bold as you have risen to high stations, from even 
lower beginnings. Why should not you .? Think of 
Lafayette, whose name you bear, a boy of nineteen, ad- 
venturous, brave, and bold, made a general because he 
was Washington’s trusted friend, when he was but 
twenty. Think of Napoleon Bonaparte, — a usurper, I 
grant, but successful because he was bold, — the con- 
queror of Europe before he was twice your years. Joe, 
it is a grand opportunity and a grander future that I 
offer you. It is yours to take and make if you have 
but the courage and the pluck. Will you try it ? See, 
here is the hand of a king offered you in pledge of his 
promise. Take it, and seal the bargain.” 

Do you wonder that one enthusiast yields to the 


HOW JOE YIELDED TO TEMPTATION. 


45 


promises of an enthusiast stronger than himself ? Can 
you blame this simple country lad, aflame with youthful 
ambition and desire, if he saw only the rosy side of 
promise and felt that the chance of his lifetime was 
before him ? Of course, he should have reasoned with 
more wisdom, and tried to see the shady as well as the 
sunny side of the question. But to him there was no 
shady side. What boy ever thinks of consequences 
other than those he wishes to consider ? As it had been 
with many a boy before his day, as it will be with many 
a boy while boys are a part of this world of promise 
and opportunity, Joe Harvey fell a ready victim to his 
own desires and, with scarce a moment of hesitation, 
grasped the extended hand of this “ emperor of Amer- 
ica,” proffered with a smile of assurance and accepted 
with one of confidence. 

“Take me with you, sir,” he cried. “It’s a glorious 
chance, and I should be a fool to let it slip. I know 
you’ll keep your promise. My, though! Won’t folks 
around here open their eyes when they hear of Joe 
Harvey, secretary to an emperor, and, perhaps, a 
general and a hero — the biggest man in all America, 
next to you ? Wait till they see me ride up to the hill 
farm, all grand with lace and braid — I’ll have gold 
braid and a sword, won’t I, sir ? And a splendid horse, 
just as Lafayette rode, when he was a general?” 


46 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“All in good time, my son,” was the reply of his 
smiling tempter. “ Here, let me see how you can 
write.” 

He tore a leaf from his memorandum book and 
handed it, with a lead pencil, to Joe Harvey. 

“What shall I write, sir.?” demanded Joe, seizing 
paper and pencil. 

“ Oh, anything,” replied Williams. “ Or, no ; stop 
a minute. Write what I tell you,” he commanded. 
“ Ready .? Say : — 

“ ‘ Dear father : I am going to show a gentleman the 
way to Chester. He doesn’t know it, and he will pay 
me well to direct him and ride there with him. I have 
sent the corn to the mill by ’ — what was your friend’s 
name .? Oh, yes, Dick — ‘ Dick Cheeseborough. I 
would have gone home first to tell you, but the gen- 
tleman is in haste.’ Sign it, ‘Your loving son, Joe 
Harvey.’ ” 

Joe wrote as dictated, scarcely thinking of the words, 
as Williams looked over his shoulder. 

“ That’s excellent, my boy,” the missionary to the 
Indians said approvingly. “Why, Joe, you write a 
good hand. Just what I want in a secretary. You’ll 
make a fine one, too, I know. Now, can’t we send 
this note up to your father by the blacksmith.?” 

“ Oh, don’t you think I had better go home first .? ” 


HOW JOE YIELDED TO TEMPTATION. 4^ 

queried Joe, with just a twinge of conscience. “I 
think father would like it best. You see, father is 
getting to be a pretty old man, and I don’t like to go 
away without telling him.” 

‘‘ But this note will tell him, Joe,” replied Williams. 

Besides, he’ll ask questions, and the older he is the 
more he will question and object. Old men always 
do. He has outgrown all his desires for glory, and he 
wouldn’t believe in yours. If he fought in the Revo- 
lution, he couldn’t have been much older than you are 
now when he went marching off to the war and fame. 
You trust to me, Joe. We’ll fix it up at Chester. It’s 
much the best way. Your father will feel all the 
more proud of his boy when he hears what you really 
have become, than if you should try to tell him what 
you are going to be. Old men don’t believe in what 
is going to happen ; they only know what has hap- 
pened. And nothing will happen unless you help to 
make it happen. We’ll talk it all over at Chester. 
That isn’t very far from here, is it ? ” 

“No, sir,” Joe answered; “only about fifteen or 
twenty miles. I’ll ride over there with you, anyway, 
and if you don’t want me right off I can come back 
home and talk it over with my father. You see. I’m 
the youngest, boy, and except for father it isn’t so 
pleasant at home. There are four older boys than I 


48 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


am, SO I haven’t much chance on the farm except to 
do all the hard work and get all the scoldings. They’d 
pile everything on me, if it wasn’t for father.” 

“And he’s an old man, you say, Joe?” 

“Why, yes, sir,” the boy replied. “He was a sol- 
dier in the Revolution, you know. He’s pretty near 
seventy-five now.” 

“ And when he’s gone your brothers won’t give you 
any sort of a show on the farm, eh ? ” the man who 
wished an empire suggested. 

“No, they won’t,” Joe admitted ruefully. “They’ll 
pile things on me more than ever. I know they 
will.” 

“Yes, yes,” the boy’s companion chimed in, sym- 
pathizingly. “ I know just how it is with such men. 
I’ve had a wide experience with the world, Joe Harvey, 
and I find that the man who succeeds must look out 
for number one, first of all. I haven’t done enough 
of that in my day. I’ve slaved and sacrificed for the 
good of the Indians, trying to make Christians of them, 
when I should have served my interests better by 
claiming my rights as the lawful lord of France. Now 
I propose making of my Indians subjects and followers, 
and, after that, I’ll turn ’em into Christians ; for educa- 
tion is power, Joe, and religion and education must go 
hand in hand.” 


HOW JOE YIELDED TO TEMPTATION. 


49 


Joe did not precisely follow the reasoning of his 
friend, and if he had stopped to consider he would 
have questioned both the sincerity and humility of the 
remark. But just then Joe was thinking rather of self 
than of righteousness, and he accepted the doctrine 
without hesitation. In this world selfishness rather 
than sin leads men and boys astray ; indeed, selfishness 
is the cardinal sin from which all others spring. So, 
when Eleazer Williams declared that a man’s first duty 
was to look out for number one, Joe Harvey did not 
dispute him. Thereupon the tempter followed up his 
advantage. 

“You come with me, Joe,” he said, “and I’ll make 
your brothers as proud of you in time as that earlier 
Joseph’s brothers were of him, in the Bible story. You 
know how they treated him and how it all came out. 
We’ll make it come out the same way again, — robe, 
and ring, and all. For you are Joseph, too, and I’ll 
be another Pharaoh and raise you so high as to make 
your brothers bow down to you, even as did the 
brothers of the Bible Joseph in the land of Egypt. 
Why! I believe it is fated, Joseph Harvey, — Joseph 
Lafayette Harvey, — you boy with the two names of 
success and power. You are set apart by a wise Provi- 
dence for a ruler and a great man, and it is of no 
use for you to square yourself against fate. Come, let 

E 


50 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


US get to the blacksmith’s at once. It is time we were 
on our way toward Chester.” 

Without a word Joe Harvey rose and followed his 
new leader. There are men who are capable of con- 
trolling the actions and subordinating the will of 
others, and such a man Eleazer Williams must to a 
certain extent have been; for young Joe Harvey was 
not the only one who believed in and followed him. 

They found the horse new-shod and the ‘‘shay” 
quite ready. At Joe’s request the blacksmith promised 
to get the note to Captain Harvey. 

“Charge him well for the job, Joe,” he whispered 
to the boy in one of those almost audible asides born 
of the clang of hammer on anvil; “parsons are easy 
if they’ve got the cash, and this one has; he paid me 
in good silver. It’s wuth something to drive to Chester 
with that rig, so you want to make it a good job, Joe; 
maybe it’ll prove the beginning of your fortune.” 

“Will it.?” Joe Harvey wondered as he clambered 
to the seat. “ I reckon it will be if I’ve got anything 
to say.” 

And then, seated beside the exiled king of France, 
disguised as a preacher to the Indians, the godson of 
Lafayette waved a farewell to the grimy blacksmith 
and rode off, in a one-horse shay, toward fame and 
fortune. 


CHAPTER IV. 


ON THE SITE OF THE TREASURY. 

1 HAVE often wondered what induced Eleazer Will- 
iams to thus lead away young Joe Harvey. He 
knew that the boy had neither money, position, nor 
influence, and that a penniless boy in his company 
might be a protege but never a patron. 

But Eleazer Williams was a schemer and had count- 
less plans in his head. And, indeed, history is full of 
just such puzzling cases. If you have read a “Son of 
the Revolution,” you will remember that, in much the 
same way, did Aaron Burr entice young Tom Edwards 
from Uncle Ira’s farm ; and, even as Tom Edwards 
floated down the Ohio in an atmosphere of glorious 
dreams of power, so did Joe Harvey ride along the road 
to Chester, enveloped in the golden haze of visions of 
empire and conquest. 

Even before Chester was reached, however, Joe’s 
plans were materially changed, and he knew that the 
hill farm at Chadd’s Ford would not see him again 
until, perhaps, — until, indeed, he assured himself, — he 

51 


52 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


should ride into the sleepy little village in clattering 
state at the head of his guards and warriors. For temp- 
tation, in the form of the Reverend Eleazer Williams, 
had so wrought upon him that the boy found him- 
self entering, more and more, into the plans of this 
prince of schemers, of whom history is yet uncertain 
whether he believed in his own wild projects, and really 
had at heart the bettering and development of the red 
race whose blood ran in his own veins, or whether his 
designs were altogether selfish and altogether fanciful. 

At any rate, he had captured the better judgment of 
young Joe Harvey, though it must be admitted that, 
again and again, in that ride toward Chester, the teach- 
ings of his patriot father and the traditions of the 
republic confronted the lad and roused the query, “ Is it 
not treason to plot against the welfare of the United 
States of America ? ” 

He even propounded that question to Eleazer Will- 
iams as they rode along. But that plausible schemer 
merely smiled serenely upon his young companion and 
gently flecked the reins upon the back of the jogging 
roan. 

“ It is no treason to the republic, my son, to bolster 
up and defend the republic,” he said at last. “ Those 
vast Western lands to which I look for empire are an 
unexplored and undeveloped region, and the United 


ON THE SITE OF THE TREASURY. 


53 


States, even if they did own them, could do next to 
nothing toward peopling and defending them. With 
my Indians I can do this. For, by their aid, we shall 
keep off alike the English of the north and the Span- 
iards of the south, while the hordes of lawless and 
wicked men who rush into all new lands poorly pro- 
tected by a distant and indifferent government will be 
restrained by my power and made into law-abiding 
rather than law-breaking subjects. 

“ Trust me, Joe Harvey, no harm shall come through 
me to the United States of America. I love the re- 
public, as the son of that King Louis who first acknowl- 
edged its independence, and as the godson of that hero 
who fought for its independence by the side of Wash- 
ington and Wayne. In helping me, Joe, you help the 
republic, and show yourself its faithful son rather than 
a plotter of treason.” 

It is so easy to be convinced when one wishes to be 
convinced, that Joe Harvey readily accepted this rea- 
soning of Eleazer Williams, and brought himself to 
believe that he was clearly doing the republic a service. 
And when the man in the one-horse shay further ex- 
plained that he was really on his way to Washington to 
enlist the President of the United States in his plans, 
and arrange with him for the removal of the Eastern 
Indians to the Western lands he coveted, Joe fell at 


54 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


once into the idea and became all excitement when 
Williams announced that his plan was for the lad to 
accompany him, as his secretary, to this interview with 
President Jackson. 

All thought of returning to the humdrum life beside 
the Brandywine was quickly given up. He was to see 
the President — Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, 
Jackson, the idol and great man of all America, espe- 
cially of Chadd’s Ford! Joe felt himself, indeed, to be 
at last upon the short cut to fame, and could scarcely 
restrain his impatience at the necessary delay. 

At Chester, however, he did find time to send an- 
other note to his father, telling him of his great oppor- 
tunity for occupation and advancement, and how he 
had promised Mr. Williams to act as his secretary and 
helper in the negotiations with the Indians and their 
agents ; for only thus would Mr. Williams permit the 
boy to divulge any of his plans. 

“Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is better, Joe,” 
he said. “ We won’t say what we are going to do ; 
only you and I know our real purpose. We must 
trust to time to develop results ; so we will not spoil 
our chances by letting the world share our secrets. 
Let me once get the consent of the President to the 
removal of the New York Indians, and I have the 
seed of my grand plan well started toward growth.” 


ON THE SITE OF THE TREASURY. 


55 


“The New York Indians.?” queried Joe. 

“Yes. The New York Indians, — the Six Nations, 
— the Iroquois,” explained the Reverend Eleazer. 
“The Iroquois are the grandest Indians of America, 
Joe. With them as the foundation and mainstay of 
my confederacy — my empire, let me say — success is 
certain. For they are the bravest and greatest soldiers 
in all the world, and they believe in me and will fol- 
low wherever I lead.” 

It was all very fine, and when, at Chester, they boarded 
the steam packet that was to convey them around to 
Washington it is hard to say which most impressed Joe 
Harvey, — his first sight of a real steamboat, of which 
he had heard such wonderful stories, or the fact that he 
was himself to see General Andrew Jackson, and later 
march with the Iroquois to victory and empire. 

Perhaps, however, it would be nearer the truth to 
say that what most surprised the boy — it may, 
indeed, have disappointed him just a little — was to 
discover that Eleazer Williams was evolving his gor- 
geous plan for power not as a political or personal 
scheme, but as a broad and liberal “land boom,” 
which, apparently, had as its base the civilizing and 
Christianizing of the Indians and which, as such a 
philanthropic plan, received the indorsement and ap- 
proval of all good men, 


56 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Thus Joe learned also that the money which was to 
back up and set afloat Eleazer Williams’s grand enter- 
prise was to be supplied by that famous real estate 
syndicate of that day, the New York Land Company; 
while the moral support and indorsement were to be 
secured from two great missionary boards, which 
believed all the good stories Williams told them and 
never suspected that he had other and selfish hair- 
brained motives or designs. Upon these moral and 
financial backers this dreamer of dreams relied to 
secure the consent of the President to lead the New 
York Indians into the vast territories of the Wisconsin 
country — at least to conduct there a strong delegation 
of chiefs and warriors, duly accredited by the safe con- 
duct of the United States government as explorers or 
as the advance guard of Indian emigration. 

Washington, in Jackson’s administration, was not 
the Washington of McKinley’s day. It was scarcely 
even the promise or prophecy of the great show city 
which now lifts to the fair southern sky dome and 
monument, palace wall and gilded roof which, em- 
bowered in foliage, tell of the wealth and power of the 
great and far-reaching republic of which it is the capital. 

The White House, big and bare, Joe saw, and the 
unfinished Capitol, wingless and domeless, while be- 
tween, unpaved and muddy, scarcely more than a 


ON THE SITE OF THE TREASURY. 


57 


track through a wet forest, stretched the beginnings 
of what is to-day a splendid boulevard and what, in 
time, will be the grandest street in all America, — 
Pennsylvania Avenue. 

But to Joe Harvey, son of the hillside and the farm, 
Washington seemed a splendid city, and Pennsylvania 
Avenue a magnificent street, as, the morning after his 
arrival, he strolled up to the white Capitol on the hill 
and back to the white “ palace of the Presidents,” set 
on its little rise above the far-reaching Potomac 
flats. 

The grand portico and porte cochere, that all the 
nation knows to-day, the nation did not know then, 
for they did not exist; but Joe thought the big, plain 
white “palace” a palace indeed as he stood outside 
“ the President’s grounds ” and looked at the home of 
the head of the republic. 

He sat down on a convenient pile of stones dumped 
in the open space, and fell to thinking about the Presi- 
dent of the United States, and how grand it would be 
if he should some day become just as great a man, the 
head of a mighty and prosperous nation. 

“Perhaps,” he confided to himself, “if Mr. Williams’s 
plans come out as he hopes, we may have just as grand 
a city as this as the capital of our Western empire ; 
and, if I stick to him and stand by him, I may be one 


58 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

of the chief men in it — perhaps, in time, the greatest 
man in it, just as General Jackson is the greatest man 
in Washington to-day. I’ll have a palace to live in just 
like the White House yonder, with gardens and grounds 
and a stable full of horses. I think I’ll have ten horses 
to my coach. I wonder how many General Jackson 
has.^ Not less than ten, I reckon, and I suppose he 
always rides out with a regiment of soldiers on horse- 
back to show the world what a big man he is. I’ll have 
a regiment, too, dressed in splendid uniforms, with 
swords that shine like silver, and flags all gold and 
color. I’ll be a bigger man than Jackson then, and all 
the people will crowd to see me as I ride out with my 
escort of Indian princes and warriors, just as he does 
now, I suppose, with his generals and soldiers.” 

So immersed was the lad in his glittering day dreams 
that he did not notice the approach, nor was he aware 
of the presence of a newcomer, until a gruff voice at 
his elbow demanded, “ Son, have you got such a thing 
as a lucifer about you ? ” 

Now it happened that Joe did have in his pocket a 
box of those ingenious though somewhat clumsy light- 
makers, then new to commercial and domestic use, 
known as “lucifer matches.” He had acquired the box 
and was keeping it more from curiosity than for use ; 
for, in his home, the flint and steel wer^ still the only 


ON THE SITE OF THE TREASURY. 


59 


means for striking a light. But, generous always, Joe 
was ready to accommodate, and just a bit vain of the 
opportunity to show that he carried a box of lucifers. 
He turned to see who it was that had made the request, 
at the same time fumbling in his pocket for the precious 
lucifers. 

The applicant at his side was a tall, lean, sinewy 
and striking-looking old man with a seamed and rugged 
face set off by heavy eyebrows, and a thatch of stiff 
and grizzled hair. The smile with which he greeted 
Joe’s glance of inquiry and the searching look in his 
fine and compelling eyes settled the question of accom- 
modation at once in the boy’s mind, and with cheerful 
alacrity he handed his neighbor the box of lucifers. 

“ I have a few left, sir,” he said. “ I was keeping them 
for curiosity. I don’t have anything to use them for. 
Please help yourself. They’re wonderful things, aren’t 
they ? I never saw them before.” 

The old gentleman, who towered above him, dropped 
to the boy’s side and sat down on the pile of stones. 
He held in his hand a corn-cob pipe with a long reed 
stem, and as he took from its receptacle at one end of 
the box the little bottle of sulphuric acid into which the 
brimstone-tipped lucifer must be dipped to set it 
aflame, he said to Joe: — 

“ I came out without putting a fresh box in my pocket, 


6o 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


and I want to smoke. Thank you, son ; you’re a friend 
in need.” 

The cob pipe was soon in action, and between the 
puffs the old gentleman regarded Joe with kindly, 
almost childlike eyes. 

“ It’s a bad habit, son, this smoking,” he said 
warningly. “ I hope you don’t have it.” 

“No, sir, I don’t smoke — yet,” replied cautious Joe. 

“Don’t do it, ever,” his new friend replied. “You 
can’t teach an old dog new tricks, you know, and I’ve 
smoked a cob ever since I was a boy where I was 
raised, down in Carolina. But I’m glad to meet boys 
who haven’t got the habit on ’em yet. A bad habit is 
worse than the chills, and it’s harder to shake off ; I’m 
a slave to it, you see. It helps me think. Don’t you 
be a slave to anything, son. A free American should 
be free clear through and not a slave to anything, 
not even to his own fancies.” 

Joe flushed at this, as if he felt that this stranger had 
been reading his thoughts. Certainly, just then, Joe 
Harvey was indeed a slave to his own fancies. 

“Can’t help having them sometimes, sir,” he said, 
almost apologetically. 

“ That’s all right, son,” the old gentleman said ; 
“ have ’em, but don’t let ’em get the best of you. A 
young fellow like you, with the world all before him. 



(I i 


THANK YOU. SON; YOU’RE A FRIEND IN NEED.’” 




ON THE SITE OF THE TREASURY. 6 1 

can be the master of his fancies if he tries, and even 
make them come true. Don’t give way to ’em, though. 
Just harden yourself against them as the Injuns do, 
sometimes. It’ll pay best in the end. You can’t sway 
or control an Injun if he once sets his mind on a thing, 
no more’n you can — Andrew Jackson.” 

“ Who the general — the President, I mean.?” Joe 
exclaimed. “ I don’t believe any one can make him 
do anything he don’t want to do. He’s a great man, 
sir, isn’t he! I’d like to be as brave and bold as 
Andrew Jackson.” 

“ He’s only a man and an old one at that, son ; and 
he’s seen a heap of life,” the old gentleman observed, 
smiling good-naturedly. “ But I reckon he’d change 
places with you, if he could, and be a boy again with 
his life to live over. Andrew Jackson would do a 
heap of things differently if he had that chance, you 
may be sure of that.” 

“Why should he, sir.?” cried Joe, who had been 
brought up to believe Andrew Jackson infallible. 
“ He’s a hero, he is, and everybody hurrahs for him. 
What more can a man want .? ” 

A look of sadness came into the old man’s fine eyes. 
He shook his grizzled head soberly. 

“Ah, son, hurrahs aren’t everything,” he said. 
“What more can a man want, do you ask.? — friend- 


62 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


ships, lasting and loyal friendships, boy, that outlive 
all the honors and applause of the moment. Andrew 
Jackson has seen many a friendship die out and many 
a friend change to foe. Be careful whom you choose 
as friends, son ; but, once chosen, cleave to them, 
fasten on to them with hooks of steel. Evil communi- 
cations corrupt good manners, you know; but a loyal 
friend is the next best thing to God.” 

Joe wondered at the old man’s earnest words; he 
wondered, too, whether Eleazer Williams were such a 
friend. He had half a mind to ask this grizzled old 
philosopher, but it seemed almost like treason to doubt; 
so he smothered the query he had almost made, and 
changed the subject to Indians. 

“Can’t you control an Injun, sir.^” he asked, 
thinking of the warriors he hoped to command and 
lead. 

“ Only with a snaffle and curb, same as you do a 
balky horse,” the old gentleman replied. “Do you 
like horses, son ? ” 

“Oh, don’t I, sir ! ” Joe cried enthusiastically. “We’ve 
got lots of good ones on our farm. Good goers, too, 
some of them.” 

“Talk of goers! you ought to see some of mine 
down in Tennessee,” the old man exclaimed quite as 
enthusiastically. “That’s the place for horses. Where 


ON THE SITE OF THE TREASURY. 63 

is your farm ? Where do you come from, anyhow, and 
what’s your name ? ” 

“From Pennsylvania, sir,” said Joe. “My name is 
Harvey — Joseph Lafayette Harvey.” 

“ Lafayette, eh ? That’s a good name to have,” the 
stranger remarked. “ Named for the French marquis, 
I suppose.?” 

“Yes, sir,” Joe replied proudly. “He was my god- 
father.” 

“No! you don’t say so.?” cried the old gentleman. 
“See that you do credit to the name. You must have 
seen the general, if he’s your godfather.” 

“Oh, yes, sir, when I was a little shaver,” Joe an- 
swered. “ My father fought with him and Wayne at 
Brandywine.” 

“You don’t say so!” again exclaimed the lad’s new 
friend. “ A revolutioner, eh .? Good stock, good stock 
that. Be proud of it, son, and don’t disgrace it by 
doing anything against your country. The nation 
your father fought for and that Lafayette fought for 
is one you should be ready to fight for, too, if the 
need comes — as it may — as it may,” he added. 

“Why, sir,” exclaimed Joe, “who’s going to fight 
us.? Is there any nation that dares to.?” 

“No foreigners, son; they’d better not risk it,” the 
old gentleman replied hotly. “ But there’s a rascally 


64 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


lot of fellows just now right among our own people. 
They would make trouble if they dared. But let ’em 
try it; let ’em try it! They’ll find old General Jack- 
son’s got some fighting blood left in him yet. The 
Union it must and shall be preserved — that’s what I 
say ; let that be your watchword, too, son. America 
united can stand against the world, and we’ve got to 
see to it that the Union is kept whole. So don’t you 
do a thing to weaken it, son, by word or deed. I 
want to see the boys of America stand solid for the 
Union. Love it as you love your home, son. You 
wouldn’t leave your good home for any high-flying 
chances at glory or gold getting. Stick to the Union, 
boy, just as strongly. There is no greater glory than 
in being an American, and all the gold you could 
struggle for won’t pay for the loss of mother’s love 
and father’s care. I want to see all our boys true to 
their homes and loyal to the Union.” 

Joe was silent. Glory and gold getting were pre- 
cisely what he had left his home for, and this word 
of warning troubled him greatly. 

“Shouldn’t a boy strike out for himself, sir, if he 
has a good chance } ” he asked. 

“If that chance is really a good one; if your father 
approves, and. if taking it will make a better Ameri- 
can of you, then, I should say, consider it,” was the 


ON THE SITE OP THE TREASURY. 


65 


reply. “But — look before you leap, that’s all. This 
republic will grow by means of its wide-awake boys 
who do strike out for themselves; but don’t you strike 
out until you see something worth striking for. What’s 
the matter ? ” he asked abruptly, casting a searching 
glance at the boy by his side : “ are you starting in 
life so soon ? What are you doing here, away from 
your home in Pennsylvania Where are you bound.?” 

Joe Harvey was almost on the point of confession. 
But an interruption saved him, as three gentlemen, 
hurrying up, joined them. 

“Ah, Mr. President, you are before us,” exclaimed 
one of the newcomers. “ We were detained at the 
Capitol. Webster’s making a mighty speech. Shall 
we look at that treasury site now, sir .? ” 

The old gentleman rose to his feet. 

“ Here it is, sir, right here,” he exclaimed positively, 
“right where the old one stood.” 

“ But Mills, here, wants to set it back fifty feet 
from the street line, general,” said the first speaker. 
“ He says it will give more effect to the architecture ; 
and Mills ought to know; he’s an artist.” 

“ Bosh ! ” exclaimed the irascible old gentleman. 
“ What’s an artist know about it .? What’s effect got 
to do with it.? Room’s what you want. The Treasury 
of the United States, sir, is going to be great enough 


F 


66 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


to call for the biggest building we can build. So put 
it where folks can get at it. Put it here ! ” he ex- 
claimed. “ Here’s the building line,” and he struck 
his stout cane firmly on the ground and traced out 
the long line of frontage which he desired. 

As he strode off, dragging his cane along his pre- 
scribed building line, Joe struggled to his feet. His 
eyes had grown bigger as the talk proceeded. He 
looked keenly at the retreating figure of the deter- 
mined and vigorous old gentleman who was marking 
off a great outline with his stout cane. Then Joe 
laid an inquiring hand on the arm of one of the 
party. 

“Who is he, sir } ” he asked. 

“Who — the man you were talking with ? You don’t 
mean to say you don’t know who that is, boy.? Why, 
it’s the general, — the greatest man in America, — Old 
Hickory, General Andrew Jackson, President of the 
United States.” 


CHAPTER V. 


JOE HEARS A GREAT SPEECH. 

T hat General Jackson — the victor of New Orleans — 
the President of the United States! Joe Harvey 
could scarcely believe his ears. Why ! where were the 
guards and soldiers, the horses and trappings that 
should attend the goings and comings of a hero and 
a chieftain } 

“When I’m head of a nation, as I mean to be,” Joe 
emphatically assured himself, “ you better believe you 
won’t catch Joe Harvey sitting around on a stone heap 
smoking a corn-cob pipe and giving advice to boys. I’ll 
just be spangling around in epaulets and gold braid, I 
will. He did give me good advice, though, didn’t he } I 
wonder why.-^ Tm sure I don’t want to do anything 
against the Union. That would make me a traitor, and 
there’s no traitor blood in Joe Harvey, I can tell General 
Jackson that. But if I am the chief and leader of a band 
of warriors who are to protect the United States against 
Spain and England, I shall be a protector of the repub- 
lic, and that’s greater than being just a plain, everyday 

67 


68 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


boy on a farm. I’d like to tell General Jackson so. I’d 
like to have him know what I’m going to be. I’ve a 
great mind to see him again and tell him what I’m going 
to do with Mr. Williams.” 

Thus he soliloquized ; but he saw that it was too late 
to make a confidant of General Jackson, for that ener- 
getic functionary was even now pacing off his ground 
plan. 

“What was it he said he was going to build here ” 
queried Joe. “A new treasury building.? a treasury is 
what they keep money in, isn’t it.? Then this must 
be where they are going to build the United States 
Treasury. My, it will be a big one, though, won’t it, 
if the President is pacing it off .? We’ll have to build a 
big treasury, too, for all the gold and money we’ll have 
in Mr. Williams’s new empire. I wonder why he calls it 
an empire when the United States is a republic. We’re 
the Union, though, aren’t we .? That’s what General 
Jackson is afraid somebody’s going to break up. Who 
wants to break it up, I wonder .? I’m sure I don’t. I 
wonder why the Capitol wouldn’t be just the kind of a 
building to put up for our treasury .? I should think it 
would be a first-rate thing to copy. I guess I’ll go up 
and look it over again.” 

So, thinking no more of President Jackson’s solemn 
warning, but thinking a good deal of General Jackson’s 


JOE HEARS A GREAT SPEECH. 69 

fame as a successful soldier, the boy strolled along 
the muddy avenue fringed with its scraggy poplars, 
and climbed the hill to the big, unfinished Capitol at 
‘‘the far end” of the avenue. 

There he found a crowd surging about the doors, 
and, boy-like when he comes upon a crowd, Joe’s 
curiosity was aroused, and he pushed his way through 
the throng which finally came up against the closed 
doors of what he understood to be the Senate Chamber 
of the Congress of the United States. 

Flushed and panting from his vigorous but success- 
ful effort to elbow his way to the end of things, Joe 
tried the door. It yielded to his touch, but only 
opened sufficiently to enable a forbidding doorkeeper 
to say, — 

“You can’t come in here, boy; Mr. Webster is 
speaking, and there is no room.” 

Now to be denied entrance to any place — especially 
any public place — is to a well-regulated and healthily 
inquisitive American boy the strongest spur to desire. 

“Mr. Webster speaking!” he said. “Why, yes; 
that’s just what that man in the treasury lot told Presi- 
dent Jackson. I reckon I want to hear him. Folks 
say he’s a master hand at a speech.” 

So Joe, patient and watchful, waited his opportunity 
for a second attempt. 


70 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


It came speedily. For a tall, slender, pleasant-faced 
man worked his way through the crowd which, enthu- 
siastically respectful, parted to permit his passage, and 
even raised a restrained cheer of recognition and wel- 
come. The newcomer pulled open the guarded door, 
and the doorkeeper, peering out, said : “ All right, Mr. 
Clay. I reckon you can squeeze in, sir.” 

And as Mr. Clay ‘‘squeezed in,” young Joe Harvey 
slipped in with him. 

But the restraining hand of the doorkeeper fell upon 
him. 

“ Here, boy, I told you you couldn’t come in, didn’t 
I ? ” he said. “ How many times have I got to say 
it.?” 

“But I want to hear Mr. Webster, sir, and you 
can’t keep me out. Haven’t I a right here .? I’m an 
American.” 

Clay looked down with a smile at this insistent 
young American who had followed in his wake. 

“ Of course you are, son,” he said. “ Let him in,” 
he said to the doorkeeper. “ He doesn’t take up 
much room, and it will do our boys good to hear 
Black Dan lay down the law and explain the Consti- 
tution. Follow me, son,” he added, with his hand on 
young Joe Harvey’s arm. “I reckon you can find 
standing room.” 


JOE HEARS A GREAT' SPEECH. 


71 


Joe thanked him heartily, and, relying on his skill 
at unobtrusive elbowing, he did find standing room. 
Indeed, he pushed so far forward that he gradually 
attained a capital position to see, upon the floor of the 
Senate, a notable and now historic scene. 

The Senate Chamber of that time was the room 
now occupied by the Supreme Court of the United 
States — a good-sized apartment surmounted by a low 
half-dome. It was packed that day with a throng 
which crowded upon the desks of the Senators, and 
filled the galleries with an intent and listening audience. 

In the centre of the cleared space before the desk 
of the presiding officer a massive-looking man was 
speaking, and, save for his own resounding voice, a 
hushed and admiring silence filled that crowded room. 

The speaker was of tall and commanding figure, 
of well-knit and sturdy frame, his dark, almost swarthy 
complexion giving truth to his popular nickname of 
“ Black Dan,” while his great head with its broad 
forehead, its wonderful eyes flashing beneath their 
thatch of shaggy eyebrows, and the forcible mouth 
and jaw told of a strength and power and will that 
made him seem like some old hero of the ancient 
days, or, as one observer has expressed it, ^‘a sturdy 
Roundhead sentinel of Cromwell’s time, on guard 
before the gates of the Constitution.” 


72 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Daniel Webster that day was dressed in his well- 
known costume of blue dress-coat with brass buttons, 
buff waistcoat, high cravat, and black trousers ; and, 
with one hand jingling the coins and keys in his pocket, 
and the other raised in characteristic gestures, he held 
his auditors spellbound, as from his lips came that tor- 
rent of eloquence, argument, and patriotism, familiar 
now to all the English-speaking world as one of the 
triumphs of oratory — the matchless “reply to^ayne.” 

Joe Harvey did not, of course, appreciate the fact 
that he was listening to one of the world’s greatest 
orations; but he did know that Daniel Webster was 
speaking, and that Daniel Webster was, as his father 
had told him, “a master hand at speaking.” Soon, 
curiosity grew to interest, interest to wonder, and won- 
der to fascination that held this restless, thoughtless 
American boy as it was holding that whole listening 
audience of friends and foes. 

Even as he listened. General Jackson’s words of 
counsel and warning seemed mingling with the orator’s 
splendid sentences. Joe knew that Mr. Webster had 
been speaking a long time, and that his oration seemed 
drawing to a close ; he wondered what had gone before, 
and wished he could have heard it all, for that earnest 
plea for loyalty and union struck even to the heart of 
a careless boy ; while the orator’s noble sentiments of 


JOE HEARS A GREAT SPEECH. 


73 


patriotism and of devotion to the flag fired the young 
soul with ardor and filled it with conviction. 

He heard the orator make that final plea for an 
undivided union which has become an enduring portion 
of America’s heritage of eloquence, closing the inspir- 
ing and lucid defence of the Constitution which he 
had that day expounded so nobly as to make Daniel 
Webster fixed in fame as the Constitution’s ablest 
defender. 

He heard the orator remind his auditors that the 
American people for forty years had preserved “ this, 
their own Constitution,” that they had seen “their 
happiness, prosperity, and renown grow with its 
growth and strengthen with its strength,” and that it 
could never be overthrown by direct assault, although 
it might be evaded and nullified by those who, pledged 
to preserve and wisely administer it, might prove faith- 
less to their public trust. 

Then, at last, did Joe Harvey hear that plea for the 
Union which, as he read it, long years after, reawoke 
the thrill with which he had listened to it, given in 
that wonderful, matchless voice that raised the boy to 
an exaltation of loyalty, a willingness to die in its 
defence, culminating at last in that burst of eloquence 
over the flag that burned itself deep into the hearts 
of a succeeding generation, and sent men forth to 


74 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


battle to the death for the integrity of the Union and 
the salvation of an unmarred flag. 

“While the Union lasts,” Joe heard Daniel Webster 
declare, “ we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects 
spread out before us — for us and our children. Be- 
yond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant 
that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise ! 
God grant that on my vision never may be opened 
what lies behind ! When my eyes shall be turned to 
behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not 
see him shining on the broken and dishonored frag- 
ments of a once glorious Union; on states dissevered, 
discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their 
last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the 
gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and 
honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, 
its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, 
not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star ob- 
scured, bearing for its motto no such miserable in- 
terrogatory as, ‘ What is all this worth } ’ nor those 
other words of delusion and folly, ‘ Liberty first and 
Union afterward’; but everywhere, spread over all 
in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample 
folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, 
and in every wind under the whole heavens, that 


JOE HEARS A GREAT SPEECH. 


;5 


Other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, 
— Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and in- 
separable ! ” 

The voice ceased; the orator sat down; and Joe 
Harvey, stirred as he had never been stirred before 
by spoken words, stood enthralled and spellbound, as 
did all who listened to the closing words of that noble 
and immortal speech. For a space no one moved ; 
then the presiding officer’s gavel descended with an 
awakening tap, and a burst of applause swept through 
the crowded Senate Chamber. The throng moved 
toward the doors. 

Joe Harvey, carried irresistibly along, was strangely 
quiet for so alive and restless a boy ; he made no 
attempt toward pushing; the memory and influence 
of the words he had heard filled his soul and re- 
strained his actions. The experience of that day was 
never wholly forgotten, even though for a time 
obscured. 

But in the wide corridor that led into the rotunda, 
suddenly a hand fell upon his shoulder, and looking up 
the boy’s eyes fell upon the dark but attractive face of 
Eleazer Williams. 

Impetuously, he grasped the man’s hand. 

“ Oh, did you hear Mr. Webster’s speech, sir .? ” he 
cried. “ Was it not grand .? ” 


76 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“Tremendous,” was Williams’s reply. “ And so that’s 
where you’ve kept yourself, eh ? How did you get in ? ” 

“I went in with Henry Clay, sir,” Joe replied with 
gratified pride, and added with a due sense of his 
importance, “ I only came in toward the end. I was 
kept down by the White House talking with the Presi- 
dent.” 

Williams laughed appreciatively, casting at the same 
time a keen glance of inquiry upon his young secretary. 

“ Well, well, you do keep fine society ! ” he said. “ A 
friend of Clay and Jackson, eh Why, you’re a young 
man to cultivate. Did you — did you — say anything 
about our — enterprise ? ” 

“Why, no, sir,” replied honest Joe, “you told me 
not to.” 

“Quite right, quite right, my son. You are a boy to 
be relied upon,” Williams cried in a relieved and ap- 
preciative tone. “ I knew I could trust you with my 
secrets. And now I’m going to try you still further 
with a more responsible commission. I want you to go 
to New York for me.” 

“To New York, sir ? Alone ? ” exclaimed Joe. 

“Why not.? I can trust you,” Williams replied. “I 
want you to find my Iroquois warriors who are waiting 
for me there, and hurry them back here before Gover- 
nor Cass gets along. I’m afraid he’ll spoil some of my 


JOE HEARS A GREAT SPEECH. 


77 


plans if I don’t have my Indian friends here. You’ll 
find them in charge of Mr. Ogden of the land company, 
at a place I’ll tell you of, and I want you to bring them 
here straightway.” 

Joe’s adventurous soul was at once off on a new tack. 
Even Webster’s speech was, for a time, crowded into 
the background, as this mission with which he was 
intrusted by Williams filled his mind. Already things 
seemed coming his way ; already his dreams were shap- 
ing into fact ; for here he was, sent to summon his 
Iroquois. He was to enter Washington, even as he 
had dreamed, at the head of his Indian warriors. 


CHAPTER VI. 


JOE Harvey’s princely retinue. 

S befitted one who was to re-enter the capital with 



a retinue of red-skinned warriors, Joe Harvey 
next morning boarded the Baltimore mail-coach at 
the door of the Indian Queen Hotel, where, for fully 
a hundred years, tavern, hostelry, or hotel has stood 
for those who visit Washington. 

Joe climbed to the top, where, on his perch behind 
the boot, the burly guard had his station, and was soon 
bowling along the excellent turnpike road toward Bal- 
timore. The guard was an important personage, de- 
termined in looks as he was burly in build, and he 
kept a ready hand upon the big, wide-mouthed, fun- 
nel-shaped blunderbuss which he carried as protection 
against the highwaymen who, now and then, would 
“ hold up ” the Baltimore mail-coach. 

Joe soon struck up an acquaintance with his near- 
at-hand protector, and, in the succession of his highly 
entertaining tales of road agents and road adventurers, 
was so altogether oblivious of his surroundings that 


JOE HARVEY^S PRINCELY RETINUE. 


79 


the steamboat wharf at Baltimore was reached en- 
tirely too soon. In fact, the boy .was sorry that he 
could not go all the way by stage-coach to New York, 
instead of by the constantly shifting routes by road 
and water, by coach and steamboat. 

There were at least five or six such changes of 
road and conveyances before the long and tedious 
journey between Washington and New York was 
completed, taking at least fifty hours for what to-day 
is done in five; and yet, when Joe Harvey was a boy, 
that fifty hours to Washington .was considered the 
crown of quick travel. 

Eleazer Williams had paid the lad’s passage, given 
him a little money, and armed him with a note to Mr. 
Ogden of the land company, whom he was to seek upon 
his arrival in New York. But when the Elizabethport 
boat landed him at last in the big town, the journey 
had told so heavily upon even his boyish vitality that 
he was glad to go at once to the City Hotel, just above 
Trinity Church, and “turn in” for a night’s rest. 

Early next morning he sallied out to wait upon Mr. 
Ogden with his letter ; but he was astir even too early 
for the New York of those business-like times, which 
kept earlier hours in trade than it does to-day. 

Inland born and bred, Joe Harvey had the inlander’s 
natural curiosity and attraction toward the sea, and 


8o 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


when he learned at the building in which Mr. Ogden 
had his counting room, that the rich merchant would 
not put in an appearance for at least an hour, Joe 
strolled down to the Battery, circled by its comfortable 
mansions and the beautiful expanse of the broad and 
sparkling bay, and, at the water’s edge, gazed off sea- 
ward, wondering how it looked “ off there,” and play- 
ing with his half-formed desire to sail away to sea. 

As he stood thus wondering and speculating, a hand 
was laid on his arm, and a voice, unmistakably French 
in accent, inquired, — 

“ Pardon me, sare, but can you tell me where I may 
find ze habitat of ze — what you call.? — New York 
Land Companee .? ” 

Joe turned quickly, surprised at the question. He 
met the gaze of a short, well-built, rather seedy-look- 
ing gentleman, evidently French in face as well as in 
speech, who, raising his hat, repeated his inquiry. 

“The New York Land Company.? Why, yes, I 
can tell you,” replied Joe. “I am going there myself 
soon, to see Mr. Ogden. I will show you the way.” 

“Ah, so!” the Frenchman exclaimed. “You are 
well met, sare. And you would see this Monsieur 
Ogden, too. Is it business of the company that you 
have with him .? ” 

“ Surely,” responded Joe. “ Have you .? ” 


JOE Harvey’s princely retinue. 


8i 


“ Not so much of the land, sare, as of the one who 
is mixed of himself with the land company. Do you 
perhaps, sare, know of one called Williams } El-ezar 
Williams ? 1 cannot well speak his name ; El-ezar, 

you would call it.? ” 

Here was a singular coincidence, thought Joe. 
“Mr. Williams — the Rev. Eleazer Williams, do you 
mean .? ” he cried in surprise. “ Why, I know him 
well. I — ” the boy hesitated. Already he had 
learned from experience not to be too communica- 
tive. “ I know him well,” he repeated. And then 
he asked suddenly, “ Do you .? ” 

“ Do I .? Ah, do I not then .? ” the Frenchman re- 
plied. “He is a traitor — a miscreant — a, what you 
call, a dan-gerous man.” 

Joe Harvey pricked up his ears. “ Well, well, what 
have I come upon here .? ” he queried, but he made no 
open comment. 

“ Is it that you would be wiz him, sare, in the land- 
buying .? ” the stranger demanded. “ Ah, young gen- 
tleman, beware of that El-ezar, as he would be called 
by some ; he will lead you into the danger, into the 
plotting, into the great conspiracee which will end but 
at the death of traitors. Ah, you are a boy of this 
land — of America, yes .? ” 

“Why, certainly, I am an American boy,” Joe 


82 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


replied, still more astonished at this unexpected warn- 
ing. 

“And of the name — of the name of what ? ” the ear- 
nest stranger demanded. “ Will you tell me that ? ” 

“My name.?” returned Joe, “why, yes, I’m not 
ashamed of my name ; I’m proud of it. Harvey, sir ; 
that’s my name — Joseph Lafayette Harvey.” 

“Ah! Lafayette.? You bear the name of the friend 
of America,” cried the Frenchman, excitedly. “ I knew 
him, sare, when I was of scarce your years. And later — 
yes — and later. I was of those who would have stolen 
him away from his prison at Olmutz where the Aus- 
trians — bah ! those sheep — where they had — what 
you call — incarcerated him. He was a great man, 
sare, our Lafayette. My emperor called him ‘ noodle,’ 
but my emperor did not know his worth.” 

“ Your emperor ! ” cried Joe ; “ whom do you mean, 
sir .? ” 

The Frenchman lifted his hat. “ There is but one 
who could be my emperor, sare,” he replied ; “ see ! I 
salute his memory — Napoleon ! ” 

Joe had seen such men before. There were many of 
them in America when Joe Harvey was a boy. 

“ Are you a refugee, sir .? ” he asked. 

“That is it ; I am of the refugees,” the stranger 
replied. “ When my emperor was a prisoner, because 


JOE Harvey’s princely retinue. 


83 


of those canaille, the English, and those sheep, the Aus- 
trians, then I too would have stolen him from the rock 
of Helena, even as I would have stolen Lafayette from 
the prison at Olmutz, and I could not, because my 
comrades failed me. Then I came to live in this free 
America of yours, which now this El-ezar, as he would 
call himself, will put in peril. Ah, beware of him, my 
son. He is of the stock of the sheep ; he is the son of 
the Austrian.” 

“What do you mean, sir ” demanded puzzled Joe. 
“What is Mr. Williams that you call him an Austrian.?” 

“ His mother was, my son,” the stranger replied. 
“ His mother, the Austrian whom my countrymen 
rightly put to death. This El-ezar of yours, he is — he 
is — listen to me, boy,” — the Frenchman brought his 
lips close to Joe’s ear, — “ he is the king of France.” 

Joe started in sudden surprise. In the rush of other 
affairs he had quite forgotten the confidences of the 
man in the one-horse shay by the Brandywine ; how 
long ago that seemed. 

But he laughed aloud, as he laid a hand upon the 
stranger’s arm. 

“Why, that is nothing new,” he said. “ I have heard 
that said, before, of Mr. Williams ; but I had quite for- 
gotten it.” 

“ As I have not, boy, as I have not,” the Frenchman 


84 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


cried excitedly ; “ and your America, sare, she will not 
forget it when this false friend of yours has had his 
way. That is why I would see the Monsieur Ogden 
whom you can tell me of. Point to me where I may find 
him, this Monsieur Ogden. I would warn him, sare.” 

“Why would you warn him, sir.?” Joe inquired, 
more puzzled than ever. “ How can Eleazer Williams 
harm Mr. Ogden.? ” 

“ By his scheme, sare, his grand machinations,” re- 
plied the Frenchman. “ See, you boy, this El-ezar, 
as you call him, will through the help of this Monsieur 
Ogden, who knows him not, join the savages — the In- 
dians — into a vast empire which then he will turn over 
to the Bourbons — the murderers of my emperor — 
those who ruined my France. Will not that defeat the 
business of your Monsieur Ogden — will not this over- 
throw your America — which has given to me a home .? 
It shall not be, sare. I will stop this great game. I 
will overthrow it, for I — I know the truth.” 

“Oh, that’s all nonsense, sir; I’m sure it is,” Joe 
replied. “ Mr. Williams has said as much. He plans 
to — ” again the boy stopped, recalling the warning 
of Williams — “ to do the Indians good in a religious 
way and help the republic.” 

“ Bah ! ” — the Frenchman snapped his fingers in a 
rage — “ and again I say, bah ! This El-ezar of yours 


JOE Harvey’s princely retinue. 


35 


— this son of the Austrian — the Widow Capet — he 
is a traitor as was she. He is a miserable, he is a 
dan-gerous one. Beware of him ! He will bring you 
to misery, perhaps even to the death.” 

This was a pleasant prospect, if true. But it could 
not be true, Joe assured himself. This excitable 
Frenchman was either a crazy man or an enemy to 
Williams ; he must be prevented from doing his errand. 
It devolved upon him — Joe Harvey — to thus prevent 
him. But how — how.'* Joe turned away and walked 
up and down the Battery wall, thinking deeply. Then 
he returned swiftly to the stranger. 

“ I don’t know what you mean, sir,” he said slowly, 
“and — I don’t believe what you say. But I’ll tell 
you what I’ll do. If you will go up to the City Hotel, 
on Broadway, and will wait about two hours for me. 
I’ll call for you and take you to see Mr. Ogden. I’ve 
got a letter to him and that will do for us both. I 
know that Mr. Williams, whether he is the king of 
France or not, doesn’t mean any harm to the republic. 
But if you think so and can stop it, why it’s your duty 
to do so. Let me gef through what I’ve got on hand 
and we’ll go to see Mr. Ogden together. How will 
that suit you ? ” 

The Frenchman grasped the boy’s hand and shook 
it warmly. 


86 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“You are a good American,” he said. “1 give to 
you the honor, and will do as you say. It is well to 
meet one who has the narne of our Lafayette, and will 
help me to do the good, as our Lafayette did to the 
republic of America. It is well. I go. I wait for 
you, as you say, at the Hotel of the City. Adieu.” 

And, again pressing Joe’s passive hand, the French- 
man turned into Broadway, while Joe, strolling 
along the Battery with one eye over his shoulder, 
waited until this dangerous Frenchman who was plot- 
ting mischief to Eleazer Williams was quite out of 
sight. Then, dodging his patron’s accuser, along the 
narrow and crooked streets of lower New York, Joe 
raced toward Mr. Ogden’s office, until at last, breath- 
less and heated with his run, he stood panting and 
anxious before the merchant’s door. He had gained 
two hours’ time by his shrewdness ; he must forestall 
the accusation and set Williams right with the man 
who was to give him the opportunity to join his Indian 
retinue. Once let him have forty brave warriors at his 
back, so reasoned Joe Harvey, and he could have no 
fear for the threats or schemes of a crazy Frenchman. 
And then it flashed upon him that he had never asked 
the stranger’s name and did not know whom he was to 
warn either Mr. Ogden or Eleazer Williams against. 

“ How careless of me,” he declared. “ You’ve got 


JOE Harvey’s princely retinue. 


87 


to have your wits about you better than that, Joe 
Harvey, if you’d be good for anything; for my father 
says a general must always have his wits about him, 
and I’m to begin being a general this day.” 

Then, resting at the door for a brief two minutes 
until he had recovered breath and composure, Joe 
Harvey entered the building and was speedily in the 
presence of the responsible head of a once famous 
land syndicate. 

Mr. Ogden was a big man, of jovial manners, but of 
clear business build. He wheeled about in his chair 
as Joe confronted him and received and read the letter 
from Eleazer Williams. 

“ And you are the young man from the Reverend 
Eleazer, eh.?” he said, looking straight into Joe’s eyes 
and tapping the letter on his chair arm. “Joseph 
Lafayette Harvey, the Pennsylvania boy, eh .? Good 
name, good name, my son. Any relation to — to — ” 
here he consulted the index to his blotter — “Captain 
Harvey of Chadd’s Ford .? and why Lafayette .? ” 

“Why, sir!” exclaimed Joe, “he’s my father, Cap’n 
Harvey is. Do you know him .? And Lafayette was 
my godfather.” 

“Well, well! Is that so.? Yes, yes, yes,” nodded 
Mr. Ogden. “ Bless you, I know ’em both. What 
are you doing with the Reverend Williams, I’d like 


88 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


to know — Studying for the ministry or for Indian 
management ? ” 

“ For the last, I reckon, sir,” replied quick-witted 
Joe, uncertain whether the query was a joke or a 
hidden reference, on Mr. Ogden’s part; “that is,” 
he added, “if I can get any to manage — where are 
they, sir, my Injuns.^” 

“ Bless the boy,” cried Mr. Ogden, “ does he think 
I keep Iroquois warriors on tap like cider, or stow 
’em away in my warehouse like cheese and West 
Injy goods! No, no, young man; your Injuns, as 
you call ’em, are round in the tavern on Beaver 
Street with that French chap — De Ferriere — the 
marquis, as we call him, the interpreter.” 

A marquis in his train, too ; and Mr. Williams a 
king or a prince, at least! Joe felt that he was in 
great society, indeed, with a king as his patron and 
a marquis for a companion. His “ retinue ” must be 
really imposing. 

“ Do they fill the tavern, sir ? ” he asked. 

“Do they fill — who fill — your Injuns.? Ha-ha- 
ha ! ” Mr. Ogden slapped his knee as he laughed 
aloud. “Oh, yes, they fill the tavern, Joe; altogether 
too much for the tavern-keeper, I reckon. He said 
as much when he came round here to collect his bill 
for lodging. Said he’d rather lodge a houseful of 


JOE Harvey’s princely retinue. 89 

white Christians any day. Here, I’ll give you a line 
to the marquis and money for the return trip — 
that’s what your Mr. Williams says I’m to give you. 
The man seems to think I’m made of money. But 
it’s a good thing, I reckon. I’ll back him up a bit 
longer. His success is mine ; because I want the 
Oneida lands, you see, and he’s working a scheme to 
get all the New York redskins out in the Western 
country. Ever been to his claim, Joe.^” 

“ No, sir, but we’re going there soon,” the boy replied, 
‘‘and oh, Mr. Ogden ! ” he exclaimed, suddenly remem- 
bering his acquaintance on the Battery, “ I want to tell 
you ; there’s a crazy Frenchman at the City Hotel 
who’s coming to see you. He’s got some sort of a big 
story about this scheme of Mr. Williams. He says 
that Mr. Williams is plotting mischief against the 
United States, and he’s coming to warn you against 
him. Says that Mr. Williams is trying to work out a 
plan to turn the Western country back to the French 
king and break up the Union. I don’t believe it; do 
you, sir ? ” 

Mr. Ogden laughed heartily. 

“ Another of ’em around, eh ? ” he said. “ Why, I’ve 
heard something like that before. My friend, the Rev- 
erend Eleazer, seems to be stirring up a hornet’s nest. 
There are Injuns, and politicians, and missionaries, and 


90 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


even Governor Cass himself, of the Michigan territory — 
they’ve all been at me to break up Mr. Williams’s work. 
But don’t you believe it, Joe. This Union isn’t going 
to be broken by anything Williams or any other man 
can do — unless it’s the nullifiers down South, and I 
reckon General Jackson can handle them.” 

“ He will, sir; I know he will ! ” cried Joe, enthusias- 
tically. “ He told me, only the other day, that they’d 
better not try it, or they’d find old General Jackson had 
some fighting blood left. And I guess he has, from the 
way he said it.” 

“ Did General Jackson say that to you, boy ” cried 
Mr. Ogden. “ So you’ve been cornering the President, 
have you.? Bright boy, Joe, you’ll get on, I reckon; 
and I judge the President is right, sir; the old general’s 
got plenty of fighting blood left, and the Union isn’t 
going to be broken, while he’s around, by any amount of 
nullifiers, let alone Williams and his Injuns. And if 
you and the other boys of America will follow in Jack- 
son’s path, you won’t see any break-up in your day. I 
don’t expect to in mine, at any rate. I want to see the 
old flag floating over a whole Union — one stretching 
from the sea to the big lakes, one and indivisible.” 

The words brought back the great speech to which 
Joe had listened in the Capitol at Washington, and his 
eyes fairly glistened with excitement as he exclaimed: — 


JOE Harvey’s princely retinue. 91 

“That’s just what Senator Webster said, sir. I heard 
him — and oh, didn’t he say it fine ! ” 

“ Black Dan, eh ! What, you’ve been talking with 
the President and Senator Webster, too.? Why, Joe 
Harvey, you’ve either got a list of distinguished friends 
or you’ve got the pluck of a real, go-ahead American 
boy. How did you know these people.?” 

Joe explained; and Mr. Ogden listened with deep 
interest. 

“You’re a bright boy,” he said, with an approving 
nod, “or a mighty lucky one. I reckon the country’s 
safe if she’s got chaps like you to make men of. But 
here, hullo! Here come your men. They’ve saved you 
a trudge to their tavern. Can you conduct all that back 
to Washington, my son .? ” 

Joe turned as the merchant spoke. Three men stood 
in the doorway ; all were bronzed and swarthy, but the 
features of one stamped him as a white man — a 
Frenchman; undoubtedly he was the marquis. The 
other two were Indians ; there was no doubt of that, 
even though they were, greatly to Joe’s disgust, 
dressed in “ white man’s clothes.” They are probably 
the interpreters, he decided. The real Indians, in their 
paint and feathers, were doubtless drawn up outside. 

“Where are the rest.?” he asked. 

“The rest!” cried Mr. Ogden. “Why, this is all 


92 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


there is of your company, Joe. What did you expect 
— the whole Iroquois nation ? Let me introduce you. 
This is my friend the Marquis, as I call him, Mr. De 
Ferriere; and these are the Oneida gentlemen, Cor- 
nelius Bear and Daniel Bread. My friends, this is 
Mr. Williams’s agent, Mr. Harvey — Mr. Joseph La- 
fayette Harvey, and a very bright chap he is, who is 
here to take you on to Washington, as agreed.” 

Was this his princely retinue, this backwoods French- 
man and two civilized Indians ? Was this all, when he 
had expected an armed and befeathered host.? Joe was 
grievously disappointed. His dreams of leadership 
and parade were rudely disturbed. 

But • he smothered his feelings and returned the 
Frenchman’s bow and the Indian hand shakes. In- 
deed, he advanced to meet them halfway, in friend- 
liest fashion, though sore at heart. But just as the 
greetings were over, Joe started back with a twinge of 
conscience and an exclamation of surprise, for there in 
the doorway, behind those disappointing Indians, ap- 
peared the flushed face and accusing eyes of his new 
acquaintance, — the excitable Frenchman he had met 
on the Battery. 


CHAPTER VII. 


CORNELIUS BEAR PATCHES UP A TRUCE. 

ULLO, again! What are you doing here, sir.!* 



^ The two hours are not up, yet,” cried Joe, deter- 
mined to forestall any explosion on the stranger’s part. 

But though he stepped forward, hoping to steer the 
newcomer away from this undesirable interview, the 
Frenchman permitted him no discretion. 

“Ah 1 ” he burst out excitedly; “it is you, traitor; it 
is you, garqo7t, who would break the word you to me 
gave,” and a quivering Gallic fist was brandished 
beneath young Joe Harvey’s nose so violently that 
the boy almost fell back upon his “Indian retinue” 
for protection. “ But I will unmask you,” vociferated 
the newcomer; “I will speak true about you — you and 
your El-ezar, sare. Is it perhaps, Monsieur Ogden I 
have the honor of saluting } ” 

By this time Mr. Ogden was on his feet. 

“ What do you mean by this intrusion, sir } ” he 
demanded. “This is my private office. I am Mr. 
Ogden. What do you want, man t Speak out.” 

“Speak!” almost shrieked the excited Frenchman, 


93 


94 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“ sare, yes, it is I that will speak. Of him beware, 
sare,” and again he shook his first at Joe Harvey; 
“ trust him not, and trust not the commandant of his — 
this Williams — this El-ezar, who is what you call, a — 
a schemer; trust not this fellow, sare, who to me did 
promise to bring me before you and who — as, behold! 
sare — brought himself before you at the first, — the trai- 
torous one I I apprehend him ! I denounce him I He 
bids me go to the Hotel de Ville, the Hotel of the City, 
as you would say, there to await him for two hours. 
They tell me at the Hotel de Ville I am not to wait 
there unless I have desires to see the honorable mayor 
or some of the officials of the city. It is not them I 
would see ; it is you, sare, you to whom this gargo7t was 
to bring me. So I inquire, I seek, I find you here, sare, 
here ! and that garqon is before me. I warn you, sare. 
Beware, beware of him and his El-ezar ! It is a plot I ” 

“A plot.? And what is that .? ” demanded the “ French 
Injun,” as Joe designated him they called the marquis. 

The newcomer turned upon his compatriot savagely 
and broke into a torrent of French words and gestures. 
The “marquis” replied in kind and quite as vigorously, 
and the two seemed fast approaching a personal en- 
counter, when Mr. Ogden strode in between them, his 
ample form making a substantial barrier to keep the 
angry Gauls apart. 


CORNELIUS BEAR PATCHES UP A TRUCE. 95 

“Gentlemen,” he said, “this is no place for private 
quarrels. My office is no duelling ground. If you’re 
looking for such a place, go over to the Elysian Fields 
and fight it out. Don’t try it here. I won’t stand it. 
What’s it all about.? Here, you boy, — you Harvey, — 
what’s the matter with these Johnny Crapauds.? Can 
you make out what they’re talking about.?” 

But poor Joe was powerless. The village school 
of Chadd’s Ford had not included French in its 
limited curriculum, and he did not know the difference 
between cheval and shovel. He shook his head in 
perplexity. 

“ I don’t know what they’re driving at, sir,” he re- 
plied. “ I told this man to wait for me at the City 
Hotel, and he’s been browsing around the City Hall, 
by mistake. That’s all I can make out. He’s found 
his way here without me, and he’s got some kind of 
a bee in his bonnet.” 

“A nice sort of a messenger you are, my son,” 
said Mr. Ogden, sarcastically. “Why didn’t the Rev- 
erend Williams send along somebody who could make 
out this jargon, instead of a Pennsylvania Dutchman 
like you.? If he’s going to unload French and Injuns 
on me like this, why under the sun did he send me a 
fool boy who don’t know how to handle ’em ,? Will 
you be quiet, you two! Tell us in American what 


96 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


you’re up to, or I’ll send for the watchmen to settle 
you. Can’t any one here explain ? ” 

Joe was too much crushed under Mr. Ogden’s re- 
buke to advance any opinion. He began to feel that 
he was indeed out of place as a general who could not 
command. But even as he stood, speechless, the elder 
of the two Indians came forward and laid a restrain- 
ing hand upon the arm of the marquis. 

“ Will my brother tell us what this stranger says ? ” 
he inquired. “ The words he speaks are not known to 
the chief of the lodges, and we of the Oneidas know 
no plot against him. Speak in the speech we all 
know, that we may make peace between you.” 

Again, in spite of himself and in spite of his own 
inabilities, Joe could not restrain his surprise at this 
turn of affairs — ignorance acting as interpreter and 
savagery as peacemaker. In place of the war-whoop 
and the tomahawk he had expected to control, here 
were Christian courtesy and arbitration. Clearly, it 
was not what Joe Harvey, leader of an Indian 
“retinue,” had expected. 

Mr. Ogden nodded approvingly. 

“ That’s the talk,” he said. “ Cornelius Bear, you’re 
the only man of sense in the place. If anybody has 
a grievance here, speak out! But speak so that we 
may know what’s troubling you.” 


CORNELIUS BEAR PATCHES UP A TRUCE. 


97 


“ This pairsonne here,” said the marquis, obeying 
the touch of Cornelius Bear and the demand of Mr. 
Ogden, “he say that our Priest Williams is playing 
false, and that the boy, his messenger, is false. He 
say he have secrets to — how is it — ah — dispose of to 
you, sare. Monsieur Ogden, and that I am but a tool — 
I and my Indians here. Sacre tonnerres! am I — 
a noble of France, a soldier of Louis, a man of position 
among these red brothers of mine — am I the tool of 
any man } I will have his blood ! Who is he, I ask } ” 
“And so do I, so do I, marquis,” said Mr. Ogden. 
“ Secrets to dispose of, eh ? I’m paying no good 
money out for secrets. What I am doing is backing 
this Oneida enterprise. What secret can there be 
about that. Isn’t it all plain and above board } ” 

“ It is about this Williams — this El-ezar, as you 
would call him, that I would speak to you — solus — 
alone, sare,” the stranger declared, approaching the 
American. “He is a schemer; he is playing the 
double game with you, sare, and with others. I am 
a soldier of the emperor, of the great Napoleon. 
Would I then play the double game } ” 

“Well, you learned how under a master of the art,” 
Mr. Ogden replied, evidently no Napoleon worshipper. 
Whereat the stranger sputtered again in his excitable 
PTench. 


H 


98 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“This El-ezar of yours,” he shouted, rounding off 
his fresh outburst, “he schemes; he plans to turn 
back the land you would help him to into the hands 
of the Bourbons, — the enemies of my emperor, — the 
friends of the English, who murdered him. He will 
drag you down to the death. I know it.” 

“Stuff and nonsense! ” replied Mr. Ogden. “That’s 
an old story, my friend. We’ve heard it over and over 
again. What proof have you ? ” 

“The proof of my eyes, the proof of my nose,” de- 
clared the Frenchman, striking a hand against those de- 
tective members. “I see it; I smell it; I know the man.” 

“ And do not we know him, my brother ? ” demanded 
the Indian, Cornelius Bear. “ Has he not lived among 
us from a boy ? Has he not taught us the way of his 
God, and led us to the light ? We would believe him, — 
he, the friend of Skanandoah the chief of the Oneidas, 
— he who made us Christians and turned us from our 
pagan ways. See you, my brother, we are to follow 
our teacher, our evangelist, to the wide plains of the 
West, beside the Big Fresh Water, among our brothers 
the Menominees, the Winnebagoes, and the Chippewas. 
There the Six Nations shall lead their brothers in the 
way of peace and right. Let not my white brother, 
who comes here with tales that are but fables, think 
to turn us from the path.” 


CORNELIUS BEAR PATCHES UP A TRUCE. 99 

The old Frenchman regarded the Indian contemptu- 
ously. 

“Ah, savage, ignorant one,” he said, “you, too, are 
dupe and tool. Hear me yet,” he cried to Mr. Ogden ; 
“ this man, this priest, El-ezar, is a villanous one ; he is 
of traitor stock. Trust him not, I say. He is spawn of 
the Bourbons ; he is son of the Austrian, the Widow 
Capet ; he is, so has it been told to me ” (even in his 
excitement his voice dropped to the whisper of mystery) 
“ he is the king of France ! ” 

“ Pouf ! ” Mr. Ogden fairly snorted in his contempt, 
“the man is crazy. Take him off, some one. You, 
Harvey boy, call the watch. I can’t have my time 
taken up with a crazy loon. The Reverend Eleazer, 
king of France ! Did ever you hear such stuff, Joe, or 
did you, marquis.? I’ll have nothing to do with you, 
sir, you and your tomfoolery. Get rid of him, some- 
how, Joe Harvey. This is your affair and not mine. 
I must see you and your Injuns off for Washington, 
and then, hang me if I don’t wash my hands of the 
whole business. I’ve got no time to fool with lunatics! ” 
Joe Harvey kept silence in reply to Mr. Ogden’s 
query. The pledge of secrecy he had given Eleazer 
Williams, to say nothing of the inappropriateness of the 
occasion, kept his mouth sealed as to the identity of the 
king of France. But when it came to the removal of 


LdTC. 


lOO 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


this “ lunatic,” as Mr. Ogden evidently deemed the 
strange Frenchman, Joe was equally nonplussed. He 
scarcely felt himself equal to the occasion, and once 
again he turned to those he had expected to lead, and 
by looks, rather than by words, asked the advice and 
assistance of Cornelius Bear, the Christianized Oneida. 

He, too, apparently shared Mr. Ogden’s opinion and 
considered the strange Frenchman a “lunatic”; but 
with the Indians the lunatic or the insane were consid- 
ered as “possessed by the spirits,” and were to be pitied 
and protected rather than shunned. 

“Let my brother return to his own lodge,” said 
Cornelius Bear, gently taking the stranger by the arm ; 
“but let him tell my young brother here” — nodding 
toward Joe Harvey — “or the great chief of the wam- 
pum belt ” — turning toward Mr. Ogden — “ where his 
lodge may be. Then may we summon him to council 
if the thing he says be true. For, my brother,” and 
Cornelius Bear drew the stranger almost imperceptibly 
toward the door, “ this which you tell us is more for the 
ears of me and my red brothers of the Six Nations 
than for my white brothers of the stone lodges. No 
one shall lead us astray or sell our rights to the great 
chief of the French across the wide salt water ; we are 
of the Six Nations, and no man shall lead us except by 
our own will. Should any try it then will we send to 


CORNELIUS BEAR PATCHES UP A TRUCE. 


101 


our brother in his own lodge to speak the truth and give 
us good counsel. Even now we go to see the Great 
Father and his wise men of the great Council Fire at 
Washington. I am Cornelius Bear, a Christian of the 
Oneidas. See, my brother shall give to me, for me 
and for my people, the paper that tells us his home 
lodge.” 

He thrust a card and pencil into the Frenchman’s 
hand, and, withdrawing him from Mr. Ogden’s office, 
was absent but a moment, when he returned and 
handed the card to Mr. Ogden. 

“ Maurice Bellenger, New Orleans,” read Mr. Ogden 
from the card the Oneida gave him. “ Know him, 
marquis ? ” 

De Ferriere tapped his forehead a moment thought- 
fully. 

“ I know him not, sare,” he said at length. “ Of 
Nouveau Orleans, eh ? Ah, so ! he is perhaps of those 
refugees from the Corsican, who are yet in hiding or 
in exile in your Southern country. Assuredly, my friend, 
he is — what you call it? — cracked,” and again the 
marquis tapped his forehead significantly. 

“ Cracked ! well, I should say so,” declared Mr. 
Ogden, emphatically. “ But I must say, Cornelius Bear, 
you did the thing handsomely. There’s a lesson for 
you, Joe Harvey. Tm afraid the Oneida will have to 


162 


THE GODSON OE LAFAYETTE. 


lead you rather than let you lead him. He’s a diplomat, 
he is.” 

And Joe felt that the merchant spoke the truth. 

“But after all,” continued Mr. Ogden, “that isn’t 
your business. You are here simply to conduct these 
men to Washington. The Reverend Eleazer will do 
the rest — diplomacy and all. That’s a good one, 
though ! the Reverend Eleazer king of France ! Why, 
he’s half-Injun, from up Caughnawaga way. If he’s 
a king, then I’m a Dutchman! But come I we don’t 
want any more lunatic asylums raiding my office. Get 
away as soon as you can, Joe. Here’s the money all 
ready for you; here are your men just as ready. The 
Elizabethport boat goes in two hours. Catch it, by 
all means, or you’ll lose a day. And tell his Imperial 
Majesty, the Reverend Eleazer, to remember the New 
York Land Company when he comes to his own again. 
His Imperial Majesty ! By the great horn spoon ! 
but that’s a good one. Good-by, boys ; Cornelius, 
you’re a wise Bear of the Oneidas. Tell the Great 
Father at Washington he ought to make you minister 
to the court of the Bourbons. You’d be a safer and 
wiser one than Peggy O’Brien, anyhow.” 

And with laugh and joke and hand shake the presi- 
dent of the New York Land Company fairly pushed 
Joe Harvey and his “Indian retinue” out of his 


CORNELIUS BEAR PATCHES UP A TRUCE. 


103 


office, glad to be relieved of so worrying an incum- 
brance. 

Somewhat chagrined at the way in which all his 
grand ideas of generalship and retinue had “petered 
out,” but relieved that he had escaped the rocks upon 
which this Bellenger of New Orleans had well-nigh 
brought him to wreck, Joe Harvey conducted his 
princely party of three to the Elizabethport boat, 
and was soon on his slow and winding way to Wash- 
ington, a wiser, even if a sadder boy. 

In due time they reached the capital. And on the 
way Joe learned to respect and even admire the wis- 
dom and courtesy of his Indian companions, especially 
of the Oneida, Cornelius Bear, who had evidently re- 
ceived a good and fitting name when he had dropped 
his savage for his baptismal name ; for, even like Cor- 
nelius of old, the Christianized Oneida seemed to Joe 
Harvey to be “ a devout man, and one that feared God 
with all his house.” He told Joe of the good and 
conscientious work that Eleazer Williams had done 
among the Oneida Indians of northern New York, 
until Joe, with some regret at the overthrow of his 
great schemes of princely power, began to feel that 
Williams’s desire for leadership must be religious rather 
than royal. 

So they came, at last, to Washington, and there 


104 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Eleazer Williams welcomed them with many warm 
words of encouragement and appreciation for Joe 
Harvey who had, as he said, “generalled the expedi- 
tion,” though honest Joe was inclined to give the 
credit rather to Cornelius Bear, the Oneida, than to 
Joe Harvey of Chadd’s Ford. 

But in spite of the warm welcome and the words 
of encouragement, Joe Harvey soon discovered that 
Eleazer Williams, his patron and chief, was in a state 
of mind. 

Joe, as in duty bound, had reported to Mr. Williams 
the incursion of the Frenchman, Bellenger, into Mr. 
Ogden’s office, and how deftly Cornelius Bear had 
kept the peace by proclaiming Mr. Williams’s good 
work among the Northern tribes, as well as his undis- 
puted Indian ancestry. 

“ So Cornelius said that, did he, son ? ” turning 
from the little mirror before which he had been shav- 
ing. “And what did you say, Joe, when the French- 
man proclaimed my royal birth ? ” 

“Why, I said nothing, sir, as you warned me,” 
replied honest Joe. 

Eleazer looked a bit disappointed. 

“Um!” he said; “well, perhaps that was best. 
Yes, it was best. The time is not yet ripe, Joe; no, 
the time is not yet ripe. You did right. I knew I 


CORNELIUS BEAR PATCHES UP A TRUCE. IO5 

could trust you with my secrets. Both that and my 
Indian empire must wait their proper time. An 
Indian, eh ? That’s what the Bear said, was it ? ” 
He turned again to the mirror, and passed a hand 
over his clean, fresh-shaven, and rosy cheeks; his 
keen eye sparkled as he regarded the bright eye and 
rather good-looking face mirrored in the glass before 
him. “An Indian, eh Look you, Joe; is this the 
face of a savage ? How much Indian blood is there 
here ? We will show them in time, son, which it is 
that prevails in this face, Indian or white man, prince 
or parson, rover or ruler. In time, I say, Joe Harvey; 
but even now is there vermin in my path. Courage, 
boy; but I’ll sweep ’em out! ” 

“Vermin, sir, and who.?”, queried Joe, seeing that 
something troubled his adopted leader. 

Then Eleazer Williams told his young follower that 
Colonel Stambaugh, the Indian agent in the Michigan 
country which Williams was arranging to purchase as 
the nucleus of his “empire,” had arrived in Washington 
with a dozen of the Western chiefs seeking, to defeat 
the Reverend Eleazer’s schemes. Xhe agent, so Mr. 
Williams declared, was urging the Western Indians to 
demand a treaty that would crowd out the Eastern In- 
dians, and secure the confirmation of his own appoint- 
ment as Indian agent at Green Bay, so that he might 


I06 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

overthrow the plans of the “ leader of the Iroquois,” as 
Mr. Williams proudly declared himself. 

“ There is some evil influence at work against me, my 
son,” the Reverend Eleazer declared to Joe. “It must 
not be permitted to succeed. Find out for me what it 
is, Joe. You are bright, you are active, you have a way 
of securing the confidence of people. Ferret it out 
for me, Joseph, my son, for on the overthrow of this 
Stambaugh plot hangs our future, — yours and mine 
alike, Joe Harvey, — if we would make our dream of 
Western empire come true. To work, to work, my son ! 
I tell you it is my destiny to lead this great movement, 
and lead it I will, though all the force of the United 
States should be arrayed against me ! ” 

“ But would not that be treason, sir.?” demanded Joe, 
always aroused by any reference to antagonizing his 
country. 

“ Treason ! ” Eleazer Williams turned on the boy, 
almost impatiently. “ Treason to be of service to the 
republic, Joe .? Have I not told you that it is not trea- 
son but the highest patriotism to be of service to the 
republic in spite of its false friends — even to save it 
from them .? My plan is to establish a firm and lasting 
defence for the republic upon its Western border. With 
our Indian warriors disciplined and united as I (with 
your help, Joe) will unite and discipline them, we will 


CORNELIUS bear PATCHES UP A TRUcE. IO^ 

protect the republic, we will thwart the schemes of 
England, France, and Spain. We will make a vast, a 
powerful and wealthy Indian empire of the West, which 
shall be of mightier service to the republic than all its 
timid supporters and selfish politicians put together. 
With me you rise, Joe Harvey; with me, you fall. But 
we will not fall ; we will rise to heights grander than 
ever you can imagine, if but this vile plotting against me 
is brought to naught. Down with it, Joe ! Help me to 
strangle it here, where we have it at hand, and then for- 
ward ! to victory and empire ! ” 

Fired to effort by the fervid and defiant words of his 
leader, Joe Harvey rushed away to investigate and if 
possible to discover and checkmate this new-sprung 
hostility to the beneficent and princely plans of the 
would-be founder of empire. 

Joe always believed in striking at the heart of things. 
He would face the foe in its own stronghold. Colo- 
nel Stambaugh and his Western Indians, he knew, were 
at the Indian Queen Hotel. Thither Joe went to begin 
his investigation, and, upon its very portal, the first man 
he saw was his excitable foeman, Bellenger, the “ crazy 
Frenchman.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 


MR. Webster’s bicycle ride. 



HE recognition well-nigh staggered Joe for an 


A instant ; but with a ready self-possession he 
recovered himself and advanced to Bellenger with 
outstretched hand. Joe Harvey determined to try 
diplomacy. 

“Ah, again, Mr. Bellenger,” he cried, scarcely 
giving the Frenchman time to launch into invectives.. 
“ I hardly expected to see you here, but I am very 
glad I have met you. Mr. Williams would like to 
see you.” 

The Frenchman’s mouth actually opened in astonish- 
ment ; his eyes snapped with excitement and misap- 
prehension. 

“How, what!” he exclaimed. “Your El-ezar would 
see me — me, his enemy ? ” 

“That’s only because you think so, sir,” Joe replied. 
“ He has no wish to be your enemy. You just don’t 
understand him, and you two could work together 
finely if you only would pull in company. I told 


MR. Webster’s bicycle ride. 109 

him about you, and I think it would be good for you 
to see him. Will you go with me now .? ” 

“ But it is here that I have the appointment,” the 
Frenchman announced. “This Monsieur le Colonel — 
how you call him, Stam-bo — has wished again to see 
me.” 

“Again, eh.?” Joe said to himself. “Then here’s 
part of the ‘evil influence’ Mr. Williams suspected, 
right in my hand. You just must work him your 
way, Joe, my boy.” 

“ Excuse me, sir,” he said aloud ; “ but it is not here, 
it is there, at Mr. Williams’s lodging, that your best 
chances lie. I’ll tell you what. You come with me 
now, while you’ve got me, and see Mr. Williams ; 
I’m a slippery fellow, you know, if you lose sight of 
me. He’ll explain things, of that I’m sure, so that 
you won’t care to see Colonel Stambaugh. You’ll 
find that your fear of Mr. Williams and the French 
king scare is all a fairy tale. We’re good Americans, 
we are ; what else would you expect of a godson of 
Lafayette .? ” 

Half convinced by Joe Harvey’s earnest words, the 
Frenchman suffered himself to be drawn away from 
the headquarters of the opposition, and accompanied 
the boy to the lodgings of the Reverend Eleazer. 

“ I’ll hunt up Mr. Williams and have him see you 


1 10 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


at once,” said Joe, as, having the “marplot” safely 
within doors, he left him but an instant to find and 
warn his patron. 

“I’ve found the ‘influence,’ Mr. Williams,” he cried, 
almost clutching the “ emperor’s ” arm in nervous re- 
action. “Bellenger of New Orleans, the crazy French- 
man who almost upset things for us in Mr. Ogden’s 
office, is downstairs. I nabbed him just as he was 
going to see Colonel Stambaugh, and I just dragged 
him here. I told him he didn’t understand you, that 
you two could pull together, and that he must see you. 
And here he is.” 

Mr. Williams clapped Joe heartily on the back. 

“Good boy, Joe,” he cried. “I’ll see the comrade 
of the Corsican. I’ll fix it up with him, trust me. 
Why, Joe, ’twas a masterly act. You’re a born diplo- 
mat. I’ll make you ambassador to the court of France, 
when we come into our kingdom.” 

“Make it England, please, sir,” said literal Joe. “I 
never shall be able to get that French lingo.” 

Williams laughed, as he pushed Joe before him from 
the room. 

“Any place, my son,” he said; “nothing will be 
too good for you. And now for Monsieur Bellen- 
ger.” 

They descended the stairs, and Joe having intro- 


MR. Webster’s bicycle ride. 


1 1 1 


duced the two men, in reply to a nod and wink from 
his leader, withdrew. 

“ I’ll just run up and see the President a minute, 
sir,” he said, in his off-hand way. “Anything special 
to say to him to-day ? ” 

That completed the capture of the suspicious French- 
man ; it gave great delight to Mr. Williams. 

“ No, thank you, Mr. Harvey,” he said. “ I don’t 
think we have anything more to say to the President 
just now. He understands my mission. I may have 
something of importance to consult him about after 
my talk with Monsieur Bellenger here. Better save 
your call on the President until later. You might see 
the Secretary of State, if you think best. You know 
what I mean.” 

“All right,” said Joe. “Good morning, Mr. Bellen- 
ger. I’m glad I found you when I did.” 

And then he withdrew. He certainly did know what 
Mr. Williams meant — to make himself scarce for a 
little while ; and this he proceeded to do at once. 

It must be confessed that Joe Harvey had a twinge 
of conscience as he walked along Pennsylvania Av- 
enue, after this little “stroke of diplomacy” on his 
part. Above all things, Joe was an honest and straight- 
forward youth, and anything like misleading or double 
dealing was foreign to his nature. But “ all s fair in 


II2 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


love or war,” was the proverb he had in mind, and he 
felt that the salvation of Mr. Williams’s plans depended, 
just then, upon keeping the Frenchman and Colonel 
Stambaugh apart. And this he certainly had done. 

Of one thing he felt assured, — that Eleazer Williams 
would “down” his opponents and detractors, achieve 
his ends, and reign, “emperor of the West,” as the 
adventurer declared he would. So strong an influence 
does assurance have upon the youthful mind. Boys 
like a leader who asserts, not one who denies — as 
indeed do most people, whatever their age. 

Eleazer Williams certainly had assurance. He never 
suffered the possibility of defeat to tinge his talk or 
detract from this assurance. By that, he had led the 
Eastern Indians to enter into his plans ; by that, he had 
gained the foothold in the West that gave him credit 
and a following ; by that, if but the Indian nature had 
been less flckle, less swayed by tribal rivalries and less 
unstable in its stand against white aggression, even his 
master schemes of dominion and power might have 
come to some measure of success. But the Indian 
nature, like that of every other race, — African or Asi- 
atic, — must yield at last to the more tenacious and 
strenuous dominance of the white man, and Eleazer 
Williams’s dream of empire, so far as it rested upon 
Indian support, must fall as has every such dream, from 


MR. WEBSTER^S BICYCLE RIDE. 


II3 

the days of Montezuma the Aztec to those of Tecumseh, 
Osceola, and Aguinaldo. The right to remain uncivil- 
ized is not permitted to any nation or tribe of men, in 
this world of progress and achievement. 

This great truth, however, was as far from 3mung Joe 
Harvey’s comprehension as from his thoughts, as he 
strolled along Pennsylvania Avenue, “killing time’’ 
until Mr. Williams should have completed the manipu- 
lation of the hostile Bellenger. 

As he had mentioned the Secretary of State, Joe felt 
that it would ease his conscience if he really should 
visit the plain square building in which the Secretary 
had his office; but, as he strolled that way, he saw some- 
thing that attracted his curiosity and drew him into G 
Street. It was a “ velocipede ’’ ; and, just then, this 
“ velocipede ” ^ — it was really a bicycle — was one of 
the sights of Washington. 

Astride of a two-wheeled contrivance with a high 
saddle, from which his legs dangled till they touched 
the earth, and from which, by “toeing’’ the ground, 
the rider would drive the wheels along, a well-dressed 
young Englishman from the British Embassy had been 
taking his afternoon “ spin ” along admiring Pennsylva- 
nia Avenue, and had now come to a stop at Boulanger’s, 
— the famous restaurant near the old War Department, 
then a favored resort for the notables of the capital. 


1 14 the godson of LAFAYETTE. 

Joe was “ sizing up the queer contraption,” as he 
called it, when the rider dismounted, looked at Boulan- 
ger’s, then at his “machine,” and finally at the boy. 

“ Ah, would you mind watching this a bit, my fine 
fellow, while I run into Boulanger’s a moment, don’t you 
know .? ” queried the old-time “ cyclist.” 

Now Joe objected to being called a “fine fellow” by 
an Englishman. He had no love for the Englishmen, 
as had few of his compatriots of that day, when 1776 
and 1812 were still recent and hostile memories. But 
curiosity got the better of hostility, and he who ex- 
pected to become a prince in an empire consented to 
serve his hereditary foeman as “horse boy.” 

“ I will if you won’t be long, sir,” he replied ; “ I’m 
on duty elsewhere.” 

The Englishman nodded ; then, giving the “ wheel ” 
into Joe’s keeping, he entered the restaurant, while the 
boy, from curiosity, passed into desire, and then, yield- 
ing to temptation, wheeled the velocipede across G 
Street and attempted to ride it. 

It was riding that was half walking ; so it was easy 
enough to get the hang of the thing after a few trials, 
and Joe was soon “exercising” his silent steed up and 
down G Street. 

As he wheeled up in front of Boulanger’s in one of 
his numerous turns, a big man coming out paused a 


MR. Webster’s bicycle ride. 115 

moment to look at the “ toy,” as most people then 
called the velocipede, — the father of the modern 
bicycle. 

“That looks easy, my son,” he said, as Joe drew up 
beside him. 

Joe looked quickly at the speaker. There was no 
mistaking that noble head, those compelling eyes, that 
deep but mellow voice. It was “ Black Dan ” — ^it was 
Daniel Webster, the Senator from Massachusetts. 

“ Oh, it’s easy enough, sir, when you get the hang of 
it,” Joe replied. And then in the generosity of tempo- 
rary possession he asked, “ Want to try it ? ” 

Mr. Webster had been lunching at Boulanger’s and 
had left some of his dignity there. 

“ Why not ” he replied ; “ only don’t let me fall off 
the thing and make a fool of myself.” 

Joe promised him a hand, and the portly Senator 
“ straddled ” the wheel. He was a goodly weight for 
the velocipede and his seat was uncertain ; but Joe held 
close at his side, and Daniel Webster made two turns 
on the borrowed wheel up and down G Street. 

Once Joe thought the Senator was “floored,” and his 
heart went to his mouth, quite as much in fear that 
the rider would measure his length on G Street as in 
fear for the safety of the Englishman’s “ machine ” ; 
but the portly rider swayed this way and that, and then, 


Il6 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

with Joe’s help, recovered his equilibrium and his 
balance, and in good order dismounted under the trees 
opposite Boulanger’s. 

“ What won’t they get up next ? ” the Senator re- 
marked, as he gave the velocipede into Joe’s keeping, 
and leaned against the tree, inspecting the English- 
man’s wheel. “ I’ve a good mind to get one of ’em 
for my place at Marshfield. I’ve a good driveway 
there to roll it on.” 

“ I thought you were going over once, Mr. Webster,” 
Joe remarked with a smile, and then he added, “ I 
wouldn’t like to see you floored, sir ; it would be the 
first time, though, wouldn’t it ? I heard you floor Sen- 
ator Hayne. That was grand, sir.” 

Mr. Webster smiled. 

“ Ah, you were there, my son, eh ? ” he remarked. 
“ I hope I said something for a boy like you to re- 
member.” 

“You did, sir,” Joe replied with enthusiasm. “I 
sha’n’t forget what you said about the flag, or about 
Liberty and union.” 

“ Do you know what those words mean for you and 
all American boys, my son, — liberty and union ? ” said 
the big Senator. “ We’re going to give a great country 
into your keeping, my boy — you and such as you. Be 
sure that it always is a Union.” 


MR. Webster’s bicycle ride. 117 

“ How much sea and land do you suppose our flag 
ever will float over, sir ? ” queried Joe, with but a vague 
idea of the nation’s vastness, and wondering, as he 
made the query, what Mr. Webster would think of 
Eleazer Williams’s claims to the West. “ How far will 
the Union run ? ” 

Now Daniel Webster’s idea of the great West was 
almost as vague as Joe Harvey’s. To him, as to thou- 
sands of Americans of his day, those far Western plains 
were of little real value. He had no notion of their 
extent or possible worth. 

Why ! north and south, my boy, from Canada clear 
to the Gulf,” he replied; “see to it that the North and 
South are never disunited.” 

“ But what about the West ? ” persisted Joe. “ Don’t 
you suppose we’ll ever reach out there ? ” 

“Why, yes, certainly, certainly,” Webster declared, 
“we’ll touch the Mississippi yet. That’s our natural 
Western boundary, and you will see it so when you are 
a man.” 

“But not beyond that, sir.?” queried Joe. “Don’t 
you suppose we’ll ever use the land beyond the Mis- 
sissippi .? ” 

“ What for, my son .? ” demanded the Senator. “ It’s 
no good. What will we do with it .? ” 

“ Make homes, I suppose, sir,” Joe replied, though 


IlS THE GODSON OE LAFAYETTE. 

he himself did not see where the people would ever 
come from to build the region up, unless, indeed, this 
was to be done by the Indians whom he and Eleazer 
.Williams were to lead. 

“ Homes ! nonsense ! What do we want of it for 
homes ? ” Mr. Webster retorted. “ It’s no good as a 
country for Christian people to live in, I tell you. What 
do we want of such a vast, worthless area, when we’ve 
got God’s own country this side of the Mississippi to 
make homes in } It’s a great region of savages and 
wild beasts, of deserts of shifting sands and whirlwinds 
of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs. To what use could 
we ever hope to put those great deserts or those endless 
mountain ranges, impenetrable, and covered to their 
very base with eternal snow ? What can we ever hope 
to do with the Western coast — a coast of three thou- 
sand miles, rock-bound, cheerless, uninviting, and not a 
harbor on it } What use have we for such a country ? ” 

Joe did not think the great Senator drew a very 
promising picture of the land where he and Eleazer 
Williams hoped to found an empire. Mr. Williams, 
indeed, talked quite differently. Joe wondered which 
one was right. 

“ Then you think, sir, we can’t do better than leave 
it to the Injuns to take care of.^^” he queried. “Do 
you think they’d ever get too strong for us there ? ” 


MR. Webster’s bicycle ride. 119 

“Too strong for us.? Who — the Indians.?” cried 
Webster. “You don’t know the Indians, my son. 
They’re a vanishing race. They’re welcome to the 
deserts, if they want ’em. We’ve got enough to attend 
to east of the Mississippi. We’ve got a Union here to 
fight for and strengthen. Leave the far West to the 
Indians, if they want it. We never shall.” 

“ But suppose France or England takes a notion to 
it, sir .? ” persisted Joe. 

“ Let ’em try it, my boy ! Let ’em try it,” exclaimed 
Mr. Webster. “We can protect our boundaries, if we 
have to ‘ swartout ’ every alien in America to do it. 
The Western bordermen who helped Jackson at New 
Orleans, and broke up the conspiracy of Tecumseh, 
are equal to keeping that Western waste out of the 
clutch of European nations, even if we make new 
alliances with every red Indian beyond the Mississippi. 
Don’t you worry about that, my lad. You’re a far- 
seeing youth, I guess. What’s your name, and where 
from .? ” 

Joe replied to the query, as he had many a time, 
and “ Black Dan ” nodded approvingly at the name. 

“Harvey, eh.?” he said. “That’s a good name. 
One of my dearest friends at home is a Harvey. And 
Lafayette.? A godson of the general, you say.? You 
ought to be proud of that honor, my boy. It ought 


120 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


to make a better American of you. Did I know him ? 
Certainly. It was my privilege to receive him that 
day we laid the corner-stone at Bunker Hill.” 

“Oh, sir, what did you say to him.?” cried Joe. 

Mr. Webster looked down with a smile upon the 
eager, inquiring boy, and jingled the keys in his 
pocket, as was his custom. 

“ Well, my son, I don’t think I can give you my 
speech over again,” he said with a laugh. “ It did 
strike me, though, as quite a coincidence, that the 
general who had so befriended us in our need should 
be with us to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our 
independence — and upon Bunker Hill! I think I 
expressed something of that thought in my speech. 
Let me see! Ah, yes! ‘Fortunate, fortunate man,’ 
I said ; ‘ with what measure of devotion will you not 
thank God for the circumstances of your extraordinary 
life! You are connected with both hemispheres and 
with two generations. Heaven saw fit to ordain that 
the electric spark of liberty should be conducted 
through you from the New World to the Old ; and 
we, who are now here to perform this duty of patriot- 
ism, have all of us, long ago, received it from our 
fathers to cherish your name and virtues.’ ” 

Even Daniel Webster was lost to his surroundings, 
as there, on a Washington side street, he recalled for 


MR. WEBSTER’S BICYCLE RIDE. 


I2I 


an inquiring boy the words of one of his most famous 
oratorical triumphs. As for the boy, he hung almost 
breathless on the words as they fell from those mar- 
vellous lips. Suddenly Mr. Webster smiled broadly, 
and laid a hand upon the lad’s shoulder. 

“Well, Lafayette Harvey ! ” he said. “ I don’t often 
make a show of myself in the street for a boy. But 
I seem to have been drawn into it twice by you, 
Joseph. First, by riding on that contrivance of yours, 
and then by the memory of the man whose name 
you bear. Don’t do anything to disgrace it, my son. 
A good name is the heritage given by our fathers to 
keep unspotted from the world. And, as for that 
whirligig thing — well, it reminds me of the hymn. 
I must have looked like that coming down G Street, 
didn’t I ? 

‘And on the wings of all the winds 
Came flying all abroad.’ ” 

And with another friendly nod, Daniel Webster 
strode off toward Pennsylvania Avenue, humming 
(without a bit of melody) his favorite verses from the 
Eighteenth Psalm, while Joe Harvey recovered himself 
from the spell of that memorable interview just in 
time to catch the hail of the young English attach^ 
across the street, and to return the velocipede he 
had “kept an eye on.” 


122 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Then he, too, followed in Mr. Webster’s wake to 
Pennsylvania Avenue. But scarcely had he turned 
the corner when he felt a vigorous grasp on his arm. 

I say, neighbor. I’ve kind of lost my bearings, I 
guess. Can you show me the way to the Navy De- 
partment } ” 

Joe looked at the inquirer before replying. He had 
been taught to do this instinctively, after so many 
similar accostings ; for Joe Harvey was learning cau- 
tion gradually. 

The speaker was a short, stocky, sailor-like looking 
man, with twinkling gray eyes and a bronzed, weather- 
beaten face. He carried in his hand something tied 
in a red bandanna handkerchief, and his grip upon 
his burden was firm and determined. 

“It’s this way, sir,’’ Joe replied. “I’ll show it to 
you. I’m going that far.” 

“ Do you know the Secretary of the Navy when 
you see him, lad ? ” queried the stranger. “ I want 
to get my peepers on him.” 

“ I don’t think I do,” replied Joe; “but it’ll be easy 
enough to see him at the Department.” 

“ Stranger here too, be ye ” said the man with the 
bandanna bundle. 

“Well, not exactly,” replied Joe. “I’ve been here 
off and on quite a while, and I know some of the big 


MR. Webster’s bicycle ride. 


123 


bugs — the President and Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay 
and the Secretary of State.” He rattled off the names 
carelessly, but with underlying impressiveness. 

“ O ho ! you know Old Hickory, do ye } Old rascal, 
I call him,” the “sailor-man” broke in, shaking his 
bundle with emphasis. “ But I’ve got square with him. 
I’ve just been up taking a look at the White House, 
where the old chap lives. Nice sort of a President, he 
is, to clean out the money from the Bank as he did ! 
But I’ve got square with him,” he repeated, with a 
chuckle. “Just you wait till I show the Secretary of 
the Navy what I’ve got here ; ” and again he shook 
his bandanna bundle significantly. 

“Well, you can do that soon,” Joe replied, as he 
pointed toward an unpretentious looking building be- 
yond them. “There’s the Navy Department.” 

“’S that so,” said Joe’s companion. “Say, I guess 
you’re a good sort of young chap. Come in with me 
while I see the Secretary. Just see what he says when 
I show him this,” with a jubilant shake of his burden 
again. 

Joe’s curiosity was aroused. 

“ What you got in it } ” he asked, as together they 
halted before the steps of the Navy Department. 
“And who shall we say wants to see the Secre- 
tary ” he added. 


124 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


The man paused an instant before ascending the 
steps. 

“Just you say that Dewey wants to see him — Cap’n 
Dewey from the Cape,” he replied. 

“And shall I tell ’em what you want to show the 
Secretary, cap’n.?’’ queried Joe. 

“No, I guess not, sonny; I’ll do that myself,’’ 
Cap’n Dewey replied. “ It’ll take him right between 
the eyes, I guess ; and I want to see how he acts when 
I chuck it at him. You come along with me and see 
the fun.’’ 

Joe was nothing loath to do this. He enjoyed sur- 
prises, you know. But his curiosity grew with the 
mystery. 

“All right. I’ll go in with you,’’ he said. “But 
what’s in your bundle.? Won’t you tell a fellow be- 
fore we go in .? I’ll enjoy that surprise all the more, and 
— well, I don’t want to get into any trouble, you know.’’ 

“Trouble!’’ cried the cap’n, pushing the boy be- 
fore him up the steps. “This ain’t going to be any 
trouble for you. I don’t know how it’ll be for me, 
though. But I’ll show it to him, whatever happens ! ’’ 

“All right; but what is it.? What’ll you show him.? 
What’s in your bundle.?” persisted Joe. 

Captain Dewey lifted the bandanna bundle to the 
level of Joe’s eyes. 


MR. WEBSTER S BICYCLE RIDE. 


125 


“ Feel it,” he said. 

Joe felt. The contents of the bandanna was some- 
thing round and hard and “ knobby.” 

“ What is it ? ” he repeated, as he fingered the 
bundle. 

Cap’n Dewey again shook his mysterious posses- 
sion resolutely. Then he pulled Joe’s ear close to 
his lip&. 

“ I’ll tell ye. ’Sh ! don’t say anything. It’s the 
head of General Jackson!” he whispered hoarsely. 


CHAPTER IX. 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 

J OE HARVEY drew back in horror and would have 
fled the place, but for Captain Dewey’s restraining 
hand. Had he come upon a maniac or a murderer.? he 
wondered. 

He had heard of frequent attempts to assassinate the 
gruff old hero-president, and his first thought was that 
here was another horrible and successful endeavor, 
into which he was to be dragged as a confederate. 
Again he tried to escape ; and again the hand of the 
man with the bandanna bundle held him prisoner. 

“ I swan ! ” cried the Cape Cod captain, with a 
breezy laugh; “I believe the boy thinks I’ve got a 
real simon-pure, flesh and blood head in my ban- 
danna ! Set down, lad — set right down here on these 
steps and let me tell you about it. It’s a wooden head 
I’ve got here — a figurehead, don’t you see ? I sculled out 
and sawed it off ’n Old Ironsides^ down to the Charles- 
town Navy Yard, and now I’m going to deliver it up to the 
Secretary of the Navy. We don’t want the figurehead 

126 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 


\ 2 ^ 


of the man who insulted us down to Boston on a 
Boston-built frigate, and I’m going to tell him so. 
Now you come along!” 

He pulled the unresisting, but still mystified, Joe 
Harvey up the stairs, and the next moment was within 
the doors of the Navy Department, looking for its chief. 

“ Mr. Secretary,” said the captain, as he, with Joe at 
his elbow, was ushered into the presence of that officer, 
“ I’m the man that sawed off the figgerhead of the 
Constitution, and here it is.” 

And, with that, Dewey planted the bandanna bundle 
on the Secretary’s desk. The folds of the handkerchief 
fell away and disclosed to the astonished Secretary the 
grim, carven, and wooden features of the hero of New 
Orleans. 

“What!” cried the indignant head of the Navy, 
“are you the man who disfigured Old Ironsides? I’ll 
have you arrested at once, you and your accomplice;” 
and he frowned upon poor Joe, as he reached for his 
bell to summon a messenger. 

“ Hold on, Mr. Secretary,” said the captain, “ he ain’t 
my accomplice. He’s just an obliging young fellow 
who showed me the way to your place ; and I don’t find 
any statute against defacing a man-o’-war, do you } You 
can sue me for trespass if you want to, but you’ve 
got to do it where I trespassed, and that’s in Charles- 


128 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


town, in the state of Massachusetts. If you say so, ' 
ni go back there and stand my trial in the Middlesex 
County courts. But you can’t arrest me here for what 
I didn’t do here. Besides, I’ve given you back the 
figgerhead. There it is.” 

The Secretary of the Navy leaned back in his chair 
and looked at this self-acknowledged “ trespasser.” 

“ Why,” he said, “ you’re a regular sea lawyer, aren’t 
you. Captain — ” he paused to supply the name. 

“ Dewey, sir, Cap’n Samuel Dewey from Cape Cod,” 
the sailor responded. 

The Secretary nodded. 

“ I think you have the right of it. Captain Dewey,” 
he said; “but you’re a mighty cheeky chap. How did 
you do it.?” 

Thereupon the captain told his story. “Upon that 
hint, he spake,” as Othello said. 

He told the Secretary how the Boston men, angered 
because, President Jackson, while the guest of their city, 
had signed the order that crippled the United States 
Bank that they believed in and he didn’t, were still 
more enraged when they learned that their Boston-built 
frigate, the famous Constitution (or Old Ironsides as 
it was often called), then lying in the Charlestown 
Navy Yard for repairs, was to be ornamented with 
General Jackson’s “statue” as a figurehead. 



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THE PRESIDENT LOOKED 


UPON HIS DECAPITATED EFFIGY.” 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 


29 


“It kind o’ riled me, too,” said Captain Dewey; “so 
one night, when it was raining pitchforks, I sculled out 
with a muffled oar, right under the cutwater of Old 
Ironsides^ clum up to the headboards and sawed off the 
head from the figger ; and here it is, sir ! We don’t 
want it in Boston, so I brought it to Washington.” 

The Secretary laughed aloud. 

“Cheeky!” he cried, “why, cap’n, you’re a hero, 
even if you are a Whig. I’ll have to tell — Say, you 
wait right here and let this boy go over with me to the 
President. I’ll see what he says about it. He admires 
courage, even in his enemies.” 

The Secretary seized his hat and, followed by Joe 
with the bandanna bundle, went straight to the White 
House. 

“Well, well,” thought Joe to himself, “I’m going to 
see the President anyhow, as I told Mr. Williams I 
would. I wonder if he’ll bite my head off, for mixing up 
in this affair. That would be giving my head for his.” 

The Secretary of the Navy told the story, as he and 
Joe stood before “Old Hickory ” in the little room the 
President called his “ study,” and where they found him 
smoking his dearly loved corn-cob pipe. 

Then at the Secretary’s command Joe unrolled his 
bundle. The President, from beneath his shaggy eye- 
brows, looked upon his decapitated effigy. 


130 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


He glanced at it but a moment ; then he burst into a 
roar of laughter, long and loud. 

“ Is that it ? ” he cried at last. “Why, it’s the most 
infernal graven image I ever saw. That fellow — 
What’s his name — Dewey — did just right. I’d like 
to have done it myself. The cap’n’s in your office, you 
say, Mr. Secretary ? Well, you just give him a kick and 
my compliments, and tell him to saw it off again.” 

Even Joe joined with the Secretary in the laugh over 
the President’s decision. Jackson looked at the boy 
critically. 

“I’ve seen you before, son,” he said at length. 
“ You’re the boy that gave me the lucifers t’ other day, 
aren’t you ? You’re the godson of Lafayette, eh } ” 

Joe admitted that he was. 

“ What you doing here ? ” demanded the President. 

“What you told me to do, sir,” replied Joe, boldly. 
“ I’m going to the West to strike out for myself. I’m 
with Mr. Williams and his Injuns.” 

“ Is that so.^” responded the President. “ H’m ! Well, 
that’s a sort of a mix-up, isn’t it } See here, you tell Mr. 
Williams he wants to go easy. The New York Sena- 
tors are against confirming my appointment of Colonel 
Stambaugh as the Indian agent at Green Bay, and I’m 
afraid he won’t get it. But that’ll break the treaty too, 
and I don’t see where your Mr. Williams will come in. 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 


I3I 

You tell him he better stick to his preaching and give 
up politics. We’re not going to let those Injuns spread 
themselves. Tell Dewey I’d like to see him, Mr. Sec- 
retary,” he added, turning to Joe’s companion. “ Blamed 
if I don’t like spunk, whoever’s got it.” 

Joe Harvey carried back the severed head of General 
Jackson to the Navy Department, and Captain Dewey 
was “pardoned.” 

That “ figgerhead ” of the Constitiitio^i you may see 
to-day, in the midst of other “ trophies ” and captured 
battle flags in the Lyceum of the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis. Joe Harvey met the “unconquerable 
Dewey ” years after, and saw what the fearless captain 
called his “visiting card.” It looked like this : — 



And Joe Harvey’s sons and grandsons lived to see 
the day when, beside each other, in the Navy Yard at 


32 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Charlestown, floated the Old Ironsides from which a 
Dewey had severed the obnoxious head of his political 
adversary, and the modern Olympia on whose bridge a 
later Dewey had dared and done a mighty deed in 
naval war. 

Bidding his new sea-faring friend good-by, Joe has- 
tened back to the lodgings of the Rev. Eleazer Will- 
iams. He felt that he had, indeed, most important news. 

The excitable Frenchman had disappeared, and 
the Reverend Eleazer was sitting at a table strewn 
with papers. 

“Eve seen the President, Mr. Williams,” cried Joe. 
“ He told me to tell you that Colonel Stambaugh will 
not be confirmed.” 

Williams sprang to his feet and caught Joe Harvey 
in a close embrace. 

“Ah, ha! it is my day,” he cried. “By this,” he 
said, breaking out into a psalm, — 

“ ‘ I know that thou favorest me 
Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.’ 

Joe, my boy, you are ever the bearer of good tidings.” 

“ I don’t know about that, sir ; there’s more to tell,” 
said honest Joe. “The President says to tell you to go 
easy, for the treaty won’t go through, and that he won’t 
let the Injuns spread themselves.” 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 


133 


‘‘How’ll he stop it, Joe.? How’ll he stop it.?” de- 
manded Mr. Williams. “ I reckon you can’t sweep 
back the Atlantic with a broom — not even if you’re 
General Jackson. If we’re strong enough to tumble 
Colonel Stambaugh down, I guess our friends can pull 
the treaty through. The New York Senators and Mr. 
Ogden’s land company are behind me, and the New 
York Indians will yet be in the Michigan country. We 
want to get out there just as soon as we can, Joe Har- 
vey, and have everything ready for them. Let the 
treaty go. I’m against it anyhow; it’s a spurious affair, 
and our friends are on top now. All we’ve got to do, 
my boy, is to go in and possess the ground. It’s our 
day, sure enough, Joe Harvey. What was it that verse- 
maker said .? 

“ ‘ Westward the course of empire takes its way.’ 

It’s our empire, Joe, and it’s in sight to-day. It’s in 
sight, I tell you. Already I can see the promised land.” 

Joe believed he could almost see the promised land, 
too, and “dovetailing” Mr. Webster’s opinions with 
Mr. Williams’s prophecies, he actually found himself 
believing that he and Eleazer Williams were destined 
to be the protectors and benefactors of the republic. 

So the preparations for the Western journey came 
none too speedily for restless Joe Harvey. Bellenger 


134 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


had disappeared. In some way, best known to himself, 
Eleazer Williams had overcome the scruples of the 
excitable Frenchman, Colonel Stambaugh and his op- 
position seemed, for the moment, defeated ; and with 
Joseph Lafayette Harvey, private secretary, with the 
“French Injun,” De Ferriere, and the two Christianized 
Oneidas, Cornelius Bear and Daniel Bread, as his 
“ following,” Eleazer Williams, the emperor to be, took 
his slow and devious way to his “possessions” in the 
Northwest. 

In due time they reached Detroit, the capital of the 
Michigan territory already clamoring for statehood. 
Here, in this bustling frontier capital, with its stirring 
and romantic story reaching back to the days of Cadil- 
lac with his soldiers and traders under the flag of 
France, with its memories of Pontiac and his braves, 
and its bloody records of foray, feud, and battle, Joe 
Harvey found much to see and much to interest him ; 
while his indefatigable patron was preparing for the 
last stage of his “ progress into his kingdom ” on the 
shores of distant Green Bay, across the broad waters 
of Lake Michigan. 

There was not so very much for Joe to do in Detroit 
while Williams and his party waited for the sailing 
day of the schooner Andrew Jackson, by which they 
had taken passage for the voyage around the Michigan 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 


35 


peninsula to Green Bay; so he spent the time, like 
a wise lad, in noting the ways of the pioneers, and 
marvelling at the steady growth of the forest-covered 
territory into which was pouring a constant stream of 
immigration from the East. 

One day, as he strolled along the “ river road ” (now 
Woodbridge Street in beautiful Detroit), he stopped to 
watch the washerwomen doing their “laundry work” in 
the picturesque French fashion, with plank and stool 
and short-handled battoirs. That was not the way 
clothes were washed at Chadd’s Ford, and Joe found 
the method most interesting. 

So interesting, indeed, did he find it that he was 
unaware of the approach of a horseman along the 
“river road” until he found himself almost beneath 
the horse’s feet. 

“ Hup ! ” the rider, too, occupied with his own 
thoughts, had well-nigh gone over the boy in the road. 
He reined up suddenly. 

“You want to watch out, son,” he said, “or some- 
body’ll ride you down. Why ! hullo, sir, you’re the 
youngster I saw in Williams’s party yesterday, aren’t 
you 

Joe strongly objected to being called a youngster, 
but he could not deny that he was of the Williams’ 
party ; he looked up to reply and then recognized the 


36 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


rider. It was Governor Lewis Cass, the great man of 
the Northwest. 

Joe had seen him, as the governor intimated, when, 
the day before, he had gone with Mr. Williams and 
his “quartet,” to see the “boy governor” of Michigan, 
young Mr. Mason, and the old governor Lewis Cass, 
whom President Jackson had just appointed his Secre- 
tary of War. It was Governor Cass who had arranged 
for the presence of Williams and of Colonel Stambaugh 
in Washington to present the facts in the Indian land 
sale, and to the governor Williams now felt it wise to 
report on his Western way. 

Truth to say, however, in that brief interview Joe 
Harvey had paid more attention to the “ boy governor,” 
Mason, an energetic youth of nineteen, than to the 
real power in the territory. Governor Lewis Cass. 
For, as Joe assured himself, he’d seen too many big 
men in Washington to bother over one more ; but 
you don’t often see a boy that’s a governor, and, as 
Joe Harvey expected to be even higher up than that 
before he was as old as Stevens Mason, he was inter- 
ested in seeing how “that boy ” conducted himself. 

A man of energy and power was General and Gov- 
ernor Lewis Cass, a positive man of force and vigor; 
but his smile was pleasant, and his eye was friendly 
as he glanced upon the lad below him and recognized 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 


137 


him as the boy he had seen in Eleazer Williams’s 
company. 

“ Coming out here to grow up with the country, 
son ? ” he inquired. “ It’s a good idea. I did it myself 
when I was about your age ; left my father’s poor little 
home among the New Hampshire hills, and just footed 
it out to the Ohio country; had to just blaze my way 
to what I am now; mighty good experience for a 
young fellow, but mighty rough sometimes. You’ll 
have it easier — what’s your name, did you say ? ” 

Joe told him, and, as usual, the governor remarked 
upon the Lafayette. 

“The old general’s godson, eh.^*” exclaimed the 
governor. “Good capital that, son. ‘A good name,’ 
you know the Bible says, ‘ is rather to be chosen than 
great riches ; ’ and to have Lafayette for a godfather, 
and his name as a part of your own, ought to help 
make a man of you. What you doing with Mr. 
Williams ” 

The question was as abrupt as unexpected; but Joe 
answered promptly : — 

“Oh, I’m a sort of a secretary, sir, I suppose,” he 
replied. “I’m to help him with his Indian work, 
you know, and do what you say — grow up with the 
country.” 

“Studying to be a preacher like Parson Williams.?” 


138 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


queried the governor. “Is he going to make a mis- 
sionary of you ? ” 

Joe laughed. Somehow it seemed odd to think of 
himself as a missionary. 

“Well, not just the kind of a missionary you mean, 
sir,” he answered. “ Mr. Williams wants me to help 
him get the Injuns together, and keep ’em where he 
can handle ’em best for his purpose, you know.” 

“No, I don’t know as I do know just what his 
purpose is, young Harvey,” said the governor; “what 
is it.?” 

Joe hesitated just an instant. He had never been 
cornered quite so closely by any former questioner as 
to his patron’s intentions, and he feared he had said 
too much already. 

“Why, sir,” he replied slowly, “it’s only a sort of 
an emigration scheme, I think. Mr. Ogden, you know, 
and the New York Land Company are helping this 
on, and we hope the most of the Six Nations will join 
us and all of the Stockbridge Injuns. That will make 
quite a lot, you see, and Mr. Williams will have plenty 
to do looking out for them ; and that’s where I come 
in. Perhaps I can make a good thing out of it for 
myself ; don’t you think so, sir .? ” 

“ My boy,” replied Governor Cass, leaning down 
from his seat in the saddle to lay a hand upon the 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. 


139 


shoulder of the eager-faced lad, “ I’ve lived a good 
many years and run up against all sorts of people. 
I know Mr. Williams, and I never met a man who 
puzzled me more. He’s half Injun, anyhow, and all 
I’ve got to say is, don’t you trust him too implicitly. 
As for his Indian emigration scheme — it won’t go. 
The government don’t want all those New York red- 
skins crowding into the Wisconsin country; and I 
won’t have it. Pontiac and Tecumseh both tried to 
join the tribes in a big confederacy and fight the 
United States, and I don’t propose letting the Reverend 
Eleazer make a Pontiac or a Tecumseh of himself. 
We’re going to have trouble, too, with that foxy 
old Black Hawk, the chief of the Sacs, over in 
the Wisconsin lands, and we don’t want a crowd of 
Eastern redskins coming in here to help him out. 
That’s why I sent Colonel Stambaugh and his Indians 
to Washington — to make a new treaty and shut out 
the New York Injuns; and I don’t intend to let Mr. 
Williams kick over my plans.” 

“ But the treaty didn’t go through, sir ; and Colonel 
Stambaugh wasn’t confirmed as agent,” Joe replied. 

“ Don’t I know that .? ” Governor Cass exclaimed. 
“ I’ve just got the news, after seeing Williams ; and, if 
I am not governor here any longer, I am now Secretary 
of War, and I’ll keep the Northwest clear of plots if I 


140 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


have to turn the whole United States army into the 
territory. You tell Mr. Williams that. You tell him 
I want to see him again. I’ll put a flea in his ear 
that’ll buzz some of his great schemes into kingdom 
come. And let me put one into your ear, too, son : 
those New York Injuns the parson is aiming to run 
in on us here will get only so much land as a few 
of them can occupy — say twelve or thirteen square 
miles or so, in the Fox River section, and there won’t 
be much in that for you, unless you’re going to run 
a store at the agency. But an agency store isn’t 
what such a bright boy as you wants to waste his 
time on. Don’t you waste it on Parson Williams, 
either. He’s got some grand notion in his head — 
any one would think he was a prince of the 
blood ! But grand notions have landed many a rider 
in the ditch before this. From the way he talks 
about ‘ my Indians ’ and ‘ my plans,’ one would say 
he was going to set up for a king over ’em all. 
King Eleazer the First ! How’s that } ” 

Joe Harvey actually paled under these words from 
Governor Cass. Had the plans and dreams of Mr. 
Williams, after all, been penetrated ? Was this great 
leader of the West a wizard who could read the 
thoughts of men.? Joe was too literal, when his fears 
were awakened, to rightly read what was merely the 


WHY GOVERNOR CASS SAID NO. I4I 

governor’s sarcasm at the Reverend Eleazer’s conceit ; 
and the further words of General Cass did not tend 
to relieve the lad’s startled fears. 

“No, sir;” Governor Cass continued, “King Eleazer 
the First wants to understand that this great North- 
west, to gain which I have negotiated more than twenty 
treaties with the Indians, isn’t going to get under the 
control of the redskins again, or that of any man who 
sets himself up as their leader. This land, my boy, 
is to be for the white man ; here, by lake and forest, 
will we rear the roof-trees of the white man’s homes 
and kindle the fires on the settler’s hearths ; for he 
who' occupies the lowliest cabin upon the very verge of 
civilization has just as important a part to play in the 
fate of our country as he who lives in the proudest 
city in the land. Just remember that, young Lafay- 
ette; and remember what I tell you — watch out for 
Parson Williams ! Even King Eleazer can’t make 
you a sure enough prince, no matter how big may be 
his promises.” 


CHAPTER X. 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 


OVERNOR LEWIS CASS rode off with a smile 



vj and a hand-shake, leaving Joe Harvey worried and 
troubled on the river road. The washerwomen at the 
waterside no longer interested him, the thud of their 
battoirs seemed to beat down and bleach out all his 
high hopes, and, turning about, the boy hastened, with 
a heavy heart, to report to Eleazer Williams why Gov- 
ernor Cass said no. 

But if he expected his evil tidings to “ down ” that 
determined and sanguine adventurer, he was mistaken. 
He did not yet really know the Reverend Eleazer. 

“That’s nothing new, Joe,” said his patron; “I saw 
through Governor Cass long ago, and I’m mighty glad 
he’s going to leave these regions for Washington, even 
if he is to.be Secretary of War. I’ll show you how to 
do things. Trust me to handle this boy governor who’s 
his successor. Jackson put him here as a favor to the 
boy’s father, and some of the folks in Michigan think 
it’s an outrage to put up a boy like this Stevens Mason 


J42 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 


143 


in authority over men old enough to be his father. The 
Injuns won’t like it, either. They respect only older 
men as chiefs; age and talents are to be reverenced, is 
what they say — that’s why they follow me, you know ; 
boys are not to enter the councils of the elders, much 
less to have authority over them. So this change is just 
my opportunity.” 

“ But you have promised to give me position and 
command in your Indian empire, sir,” said Joe. “Won’t 
the Injuns refuse to be led by me because I’m a boy.?” 

“Not if I appoint you, Joseph,” Mr. Williams re- 
plied. “ In my empire I am to be supreme, and the 
Indians will yield to my authority and receive you as 
my deputy. Their war chiefs are often young warriors, 
you see; and you will be a leader, not a councillor. 
But about Governor Cass. He wants to see me, does 
he.? Sorry he can’t, but the Jackson is in, Joe, and 
sails as soon as we can get on board. Lewis Cass and 
Stambaugh are nothing but a couple of tricksters. 
Why, I’ve got the New York Senators and half the 
Congress at my back, and if I threw down Stambaugh’s 
confirmation as Indian agent, I reckon I’m strong 
enough to break up Governor Cass’s plan. So, all 
aboard, Joe ! We’ll let the interview with Governor Cass 
wait until, perhaps — yes, until I do send you as ambas- 
sador to him to treat as to holding the boundaries of 


144 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


our new possessions. If he’s Secretary of War, so shall 
you be; and we’ll see which is the stronger, — Andrew 
Jackson, with a handful of regulars and a mob of good- 
for-nothing militia, or Eleazer Williams, with half a 
million warriors at his back! That’ll be the time to 
talk to Governor Cass.” 

Arrangements were speedily completed, and in a few 
hours the party was aboard the schooner Andrew 
Jackson bound on the voyage around to Green Bay. 
Before they were out of the St. Clair River, however, 
Mr. Williams, who, notwithstanding his defiance of Gov- 
ernor Cass, had evidently been giving his words much 
consideration, beckoned Joe to him. 

“ What was it Governor Cass said about Black 
Hawk ” he asked. 

“He said there was going to be trouble with the foxy 
old Sac chieftain over in the Wisconsin lands,” Joe 
replied. “Will that interfere with our enterprise, sir.?” 

“Interfere, Joe.? no, indeed,” Williams replied. “I’ll 
make it of the greatest advantage. Do you think you 
could find Black Hawk for me, Joe .? ” 

“ Find Black Hawk, sir! ” cried Joe, in surprise. 

“That’s what I said, Joe,” Williams replied. “I have 
just learned from a trader on board that Black Hawk is 
to be at Solomon Juneau’s trading-post at Mil-wa-kee in 
a week or so. What he’s coming across country for, 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 


145 


from his village on the Mississippi, I don’t know ; but 
he’s coming, and I want to get word to him. He’ll be 
a powerful ally in our great scheme, and I mean to keep 
friends with him.” 

Joe had heard of Black Hawk as the great chieftain 
of the Western Indians, but to be intrusted with a 
mission to him was more than he had bargained for. 
His thirst for adventure and the boyish love of action, 
however, led him to welcome the opportunity — and Joe 
Harvey was never one to think of danger. 

How will I get to him, sir ” he asked. 

“ I’ve planned it all out for you, Joe,” Mr. Williams 
replied. “ The captain will put you ashore here at the 
bend, just before we sail into the big lake. Daniel 
Bread will go with you as one who knows both Injun 
and French, and there’s a trader on board who has told 
me of an Jiabitant who will put you on the straight 
road across Michigan. Here is money for supplies and 
guides, if you need them ; here is the letter to Black 
Hawk, which you can read over and over until you get 
it by heart, in case you should lose it on the way. But 
don’t lose it. The ‘talking paper,’ as the Injuns call a 
letter, has great weight with all redskins. You know 
my plans ; tell him as much or as little as seems best to 
you when you see him. Get him to come with you to 
Green Bay, if you can ; for if I can once see him there, 


146 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


I can make the secret arrangements with him that may 
be needful. Offer him anything, even to a joint leader- 
ship in our enterprise ; for I rely upon him to influence 
the pagan Injuns beyond the Mississippi. Get ready at 
once, Joe ; you will land in half an hour. I’ll talk with 
Daniel Bread a bit, and then off you go to Black 
Hawk ! ” 

Off it was! and almost before Joe Harvey had 
a chance to get his breath and realize what he was 
about, he had been set ashore with Daniel Bread and 
was arranging with the ^'habitant'' to whom Eleazer 
Williams’s friendly trader had given him a message. 

Thanks to Governor Cass, the territory of Michigan 
already possessed roads — such as they were. A high- 
way had been opened from Detroit to Chicago, and, 
riding on horseback along this road, according to 
directions, Joe and his coppery-colored comrade cut 
across Michigan and, skirting the southerly shore of 
the fresh-water sea, rode at last into the straggling 
little trading-post of Fort Dearborn, at the mouth of 
the Chacaqua or “river of thunder,” where, only a 
few years later, sprang up the ever growing city of 
Chicago on the lake — the beginnings of the mighty 
metropolis of the West. 

From thence Joe and his Indian companion would 
have gone up the lake’s side to Juneau’s trading-post at 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 


147 


Mil-wa-kee, but the sutler at the fort assured Eleazer’s 
envoys that he had but* just come down “from above,” 
and that instead of being at Juneau’s post Black Hawk 
was still far to the westward, at his own village 
on the Mississippi, at the further end of the great 
Sac trail. 

Now the great Sac trail to Canada, so Joe speedily 
learned, was an almost air-line path from a point on 
the lake shore south of Chicago to what is now Rock 
Island on the Mississippi. It was a plain, well-beaten 
path ; so, engaging a half-breed Pottawatomie as 
guide, they took the western trail to Black Hawk’s 
village. For Joe had decided that his orders com- 
pelled him to find Black Hawk, wherever he might 
be, and Joe had learned, thus early in his adventurous 
experience, to obey orders. Westward, therefore, from 
Lake Michigan they rode across Illinois, through or 
near to what are now the bustling, busy towns and 
cities of Joliet and Kankakee, Dresden and Ottawa, 
La Salle and Peru, Princeton and Morristown, until, 
near the rapids of the Rock, the Pottawatomie turned 
to the right and led them straight into the Prophet’s 
village. 

A more cautious courier would have avoided such a 
danger point, for Joe learned as he rode along that 
the Indians of the upper Mississippi were restless 


148 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


and antagonistic, aroused to open protest against the 
advancing wave of white immigration which was crowd- 
ing upon and threatening the Indian corn-fields, vil- 
lages, and hunting grounds. But Joe Harvey was as 
yet unlearned in Indian affairs, and, as a son of 
Eastern civilization, had but little conception of West- 
ern methods. The Pottawatomie guide had learned 
from wandering Indians that the chief. Black Hawk, 
had gone to the village on the Rock to consult with 
the man who, in the end, proved his evil genius — 
Waubakeeshiek the Winnebago, better known by his 
English name of White Cloud; Joe’s mission was to 
find Black Hawk ; so, into the Prophet’s village, he 
rode forthwith. 

But the Prophet’s scouts and sentinels were watch- 
ful, and, before the lodge-poles of the village were 
touched, Joe was virtually a prisoner, though the 
peace signs and words of the Pottawatomie and of 
Daniel Bread held off hostile actions until the return 
was made to his announcement that he bore a message 
to the chief. Black Hawk. 

A runner, despatched to the chief with the tidings, 
speedily returned, and, surrounded by a motley com- 
pany of women, warriors, dogs, and children, Joe 
Harvey and his companions were escorted to the cen- 
tral lodge. 


HOW BLACK HAWK HfiLPED. 


149 


At the entrance to the lodge Joe dismounted from 
his pony. As he did so, the door-flaps parted, and 
there strode out to meet him an imposing figure, — six 
feet of athletic Indian, broad of face, full-eyed, thick- 
lipped, and shaggy-headed, a sinister-looking, deter- 
mined, self-satisfied savage. His suit of fringed and 
faultless white buckskin was topped by a towering 
head-dress from which streamed the eagle feathers of 
a chieftain, while each ankle was girt with sleigh-bells 
that jingled above his moccasins, and from nose and 
ears hung heavy rings of gold. 

“This must be Black Hawk, surely,” thought Joe, 
duly impressed by the living statue of savagery. He 
would have handed to the chief the “talking paper” 
he was charged to deliver; but the Pottawatomie half- 
breed laid a restraining hand upon his arm. 

“ Wait, boy ; it is the Prophet,” he whispered. 
Then he put into English the guttural demand of 
the big Winnebago. 

“ ‘Who bears a message to Black Hawk ? ’ he asks.” 

“I do,” replied Joe. “I come with a letter that 
calls for an answer.” And the Pottawatomie, acting 
as mouthpiece for both boy and chief, interpreted 
queries and answers in turn. 

“ You are but a boy,” said the Prophet, looking 
down from beneath his towering head-dress at the 


150 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

lad before him. “ From whom comes your talking 
paper.? From the war-chief of the long-knives on 
Sycamore creek, who seek to drive us from our lodges 
and corn-fields, at their peril ? ” 

“No, sir,” Joe replied. Somehow, so he declared 
afterward, he couldn’t help being respectful to so 
big and commanding an Injun. “ I come from the 
friend of the Western Indians, Eleazer Williams, at 
Green Bay, who seeks council with Black Hawk for 
the good of his people.” 

“Williams!” exclaimed the Prophet, and his one 
white and half-sightless eye, which gained for him his 
name White Cloud, fixed itself upon the boy-messenger 
with a most uncanny look ; “ is he the black-coat from 
the East ? the man who would put the New York Ind- 
ians upon our land .? ” 

“For your own good; for a union of strength, sir,” 
Joe hastened to reply. “ See, here stands one of them, 
Daniel Bread, the Oneida.” 

“Ugh!” grunted the Prophet; and he extended a 
hand in greeting to the Oneida. “That is better.” 

Then he turned, and through the lodge door sent 
a call within. 

Again the door-flaps parted, and a second chieftain 
stood beside the Prophet. Joe Harvey needed no 
second glance to feel assured that he stood in the 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 151 

presence of Mataka-ime-shek-iakiak, the Black Spar- 
row Hawk, chief of the Sacs. 

He saw a man of less height than the Prophet, and 
less stalwart in form. His spare, pinched face and 
high cheek-bones bore a thoughtful, almost a kindly 
expression. His forehead was full and high, and in 
the scalp-lock that sprang from his otherwise bare- 
plucked head, was the bunch of eagle feathers that 
proclaimed him chief. His head, erect and well car- 
ried, gave to him a look of quiet dignity, and his fine 
and piercing eyes looked down upon the boy with 
almost friendly inquiry. Joe Harvey was visibly im- 
pressed with the appearance of this chieftain, so dif- 
ferent in manner and expression from his crafty and 
sinister-looking associate. White Cloud, the Prophet. 

“What would my young brother have from Black 
Hawk.?” the chief asked, through the interpreter. 

“ This letter from Eleazer Williams, at Green Bay, 
will tell you, sir,” replied the boy, and he placed in 
the hands of the Indian patriot the letter he had 
brought from his patron. 

“The talking paper,” said the chief, turning the 
letter helplessly in his hands. “ Can any here tell 
what words it speaks .? ” 

Joe looked inquiringly at Daniel Bread. But the 
speech of the Oneida was not that of the Sac or the 


152 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Winnebago, and the Christian Indian was well nigh as 
helpless as the Pennsylvania lad. 

“ Let the Pottawatomie translate,” he said to 
Joe. 

But the message of Williams was too important to 
trust to an untried half-breed, and Joe hesitated. 

“ Has Black Plawk no trusty follower who knows 
the English tongue ? ” he inquired. 

“ Is not my brother, the Pottawatomie of Shau- 
bena’s band ? ” demanded Black Hawk of the half- 
breed interpreter. “ Shaubena knows our thoughts ; 
let his young man tell us what message the black- 
coat at Green Bay sends by our little brother.” 

If the chief trusted the half-breed, Joe Harvey 
could see no reason why he should not use him, too. 
So, following the courteous gesture of Black Hawk, 
Joe entered the lodge, and, through the moilth of the 
Pottawatomie, gave the chieftain of the Sacs the mes- 
sage Eleazer Williams had sent him. 

“ I, Williams, son of Ko-nan-te-wan-te-ta the Mohawk, 
send this writing to the great chief of the Sacs, whom 
men call Black Hawk,” so the letter ran. “The white 
men from the East press my brothers of the West 
beyond endurance. So, too, do they push from the 
hunting grounds of their fathers my brothers of the 
East. I bring the East to the West. Upon my call 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 


153 


wait the chiefs and warriors of the six nations, — 
Oneidas and Senecas, Tuscaroras and Onondagas, 
Mohawks and Cayugas. I am Ato-taho, the war 
chief ; I am M ana-bozo, the medicine ; I am Hia- 
watha, the tribe-joiner. Through me the league of 
the great Six Nations sends this wampum to the 
mighty chief of the West. Let us join for defence 
and protection. Let us make a great confederacy, 
before which the white robbers of our lands shall 
bow in defeat. Let us establish, beyond the Great 
River, a home for all our race, and mark the boun- 
dary beyond which no white foot, no robber of the 
soft-shell breed, shall dare to pass. The young white 
chief who bears this paper, my messenger, a son of 
the Six Nations, knows my wishes. Talk freely with 
him, O chief, and let him bear your answer back to 
me, beside the shining Big Sea Water.” 

The chief’s eyes sparkled with approval as he listened 
to the talking paper. Across the broad face of the 
Prophet gleamed a smile of satisfaction, and even Joe 
Harvey, though he did not quite understand how or 
when he had been made a “son of the Six Nations,” 
failed to catch the full meaning that underlay Eleazer 
Williams’s crafty presentation of treachery, saw in the 
message he bore the promise of the great future the 
“king of France” had prophesied for him, and held 


154 the godson of lafayette. 

his head high as became the messenger of a new 
dispensation — the empire of the West. 

The Prophet spoke first. In rapid, vigorous, and 
guttural speech, to the accompaniment of which, as he 
grew warm in his utterances, the great gold rings in 
nose and ears tinkled in emphasis with every eloquent 
shake of his massive head, he pressed the matter upon 
the credulous Black Hawk. The Pottawatomie inter- 
preter gave to Joe Harvey the gist of the harangue. 

“ The Prophet says that the words of the black-coat 
from the Mohawks are good,” so the half-breed 
explained. “ The day of deliverance is at hand. Let 
the Eastern braves and chiefs of the great Six Nations 
beside the Co-ha-ta-te-yah (that’s your Hudson River,- 
boy) join us speedily. See, our brother Nah-po-pe of 
the Sacs has brought us tidings just as good. The 
Winnebagoes and the Ottawas, the Chippewas and the 
Pottawatomies, are ready to join us, too, when the Hawk 
shall send the summons. And our white friend, the 
British war chief at Malden, promises us aid. Bring 
your warriors and women here. And when our corn- 
fields are ripe, and we have bread for our young men 
and our children, then let our brothers along the Great 
River and our brothers from the East join in one grand 
union with the Sacs and the F'oxes. The Great Spirit 
will smile upon us, and with the Hawk leading as war 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 1 55 

chief we will sweep the whole land of the white robbers 
and the long-knives, and the home of our fathers shall 
be ours for evermore. Strike, I say, O chief. Send 
back the wampum,, red with our war talk, to the new 
brother from the East where he waits beside the Big 
Sea Water, and tell him we greet him as our friend in 
peace and war.” 

Then Black Hawk spoke, shaking Joe Harvey vigor- 
ously by the hand in token of brotherhood and approval. 
The noble old redman, straight as an arrow for all his 
seventy years, said through the interpreter: — 

“ My little brother brings us welcome words. Speed 
back to the Mohawk war chief who waits by the Big 
Sea Water in the land of Foxes, and tell him his words 
of wisdom have made glad the heart of Black Hawk. 
Our hour has come. The white man must go. Too 
long has he crowded us from our corn-fields and stolen 
our hunting grounds. My brother, Keokuk the chief, 
and I, Black Hawk the Sac, have been gentle and 
peaceful. We would have no war with our white 
brothers. ‘Take,’ we said to our Great Father, ‘any 
land you choose this side the Great River, take even our 
lead mines and we will agree ; but leave us our home ; 
do not take from us our village at the point.’ And the 
Great Father and his chiefs promised me that if we had 
not sold the land to the white people, the Great Father 


1:^6 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

would not take it from us. Then I touched the quill 
and kept my word. But, now see ! The white men 
have lied to me. They brought the fire-water into our 
village and made my people drunk ; they cheated us out 
of our homes, our guns, and our traps. They have taken 
the land on which are our corn-fields and villages. But 
I will be patient no longer. I will put a stop to it all. 
I will clear the land of these robbers and intruders. 
Look about you, my brother, here is the land of my 
fathers ; it is a beautiful land. I love my villages, my 
corn-fields, the home of my people. Shall I not fight 
for them ? Tell your chief we will stand like brothers, 
hand in hand, against these spoilers of our home land.” 

“ Good ! the chief speaks good words,” cried the 
Prophet. “ Let the white boy tell his chief all that the 
Hawk says. And tell him this from me. White Cloud 
the Winnebago ; if our brothers from the East will 
join us, the Indians whose fathers once owned all the 
land, from the Great Salt Water to the mountains, will 
be stronger than the white robbers who have seized it. 
If we work together none will be stronger than we. I, 
Wau-ba-kee-shiek the white-eyed one, the Prophet, bring 
help to the new league. The nations on the Big Sea 
Water have sent me tokens; wampum and tobacco have 
they sent me, in promise of union — Ottawa and Chip- 
pewa and Pottawatomie ; while as for the Winnebagoes, 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 


157 


my people, all ! I hold them thus in my hand. And 
more than this : our British father in Malden has 
promised me guns and ammunition, provisions and 
clothing. Ah, we are going to be happy once more ! 
Tell your chief that, son of the Six Nations. Say to 
him that if he joins us with his young men and his 
warriors, he shall be great in the councils of the mighty 
nation which the redmen of America will set up here 
in unity and brotherhood by the side of the Great River. 
For if we march together and act like braves, we have 
nothing to fear, but much to gain. Then let the war 
chief of the long-knives come if he dare ; let him 
trouble us if he dare. See, we are ready ! ” 

Even the stolid Oneida, Daniel Bread, Christianized 
into a hatred of war though he was, felt the thrill and 
excitement of Black Hawk’s determination and the 
Prophet’s defiance. 

‘‘ Good, good ! ” he cried in his native tongue ; and, 
taking from the hand of the Prophet the strip of red- 
dened wampum extended to him, he thrust it upon Joe, 
the envoy. “ Let the son of the Six Nations bear this to 
our chief,” he said. “ See, it is not white with the 
colors of peace ; it is red with the war-paint. Let the 
robbers of our fathers’ homes beware;” and, carried 
away by the enthusiasm of the moment, the “ civilized ” 
Indian, in all the incongruity of his white man’s clothes. 


158 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


brandished a hatchet aloft and almost capered off into a 
war-dance. 

As to Joe Harvey, he was swayed about by “ divers 
and strange” sentiments. Enthusiasm and disapproval 
alike possessed him ; but the high courage of Black 
Hawk and the confident claims of the Prophet quite 
bore him away for a season, and when he found himself 
the honored guest at the ceremonious dog feast which 
the old chief prepared for him, and listened to the 
hopeful talk as to the Indian confederacy which Ele- 
azer Williams and Black Hawk were to cement and 
make great throughout all that Western country, he, 
too, grew enthusiastic ; and, almost forgetful of his 
birthright as an American and his heritage of patriot- 
ism as the godson of Lafayette, he yielded to the craft 
of the Prophet and the graciousness of Black Hawk, 
and, in behalf of Williams, struck hands with both 
chiefs at that Indian banquet, in token of amity, broth- 
erhood, and alliance. 

But when, next morning, he rode back along the trail 
with Daniel Bread and the Pottawatomie, the sober 
second thought that, even with an over-confident boy, 
follows the first flush of enthusiasm, set him to reason- 
ing a bit both with himself and his comrade. 

“ What was it the Prophet said about the Britishers 
at Malden ? ” he asked of Daniel Bread. 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. 


159 


“ That they were to help us out with guns and ammu- 
nition, clothes and provisions,” the Oneida answered. 

“Us ?” queried Joe, repeating the dubious word. 

“Well, Black Hawk’s braves, little brother. It will 
be all the same, you know, if Mr. Williams joins them. 
It will be ‘ us ’ then,” the Oneida replied. 

“ But that would be putting into our hands arms to 
fight our brothers, Daniel Bread,” Joe declared. “And 
that is treachery. I can’t think that Mr. Williams 
wishes to do that. He says his Indian empire will be 
a protection to the republic ; and Mr. Webster told me 
that all the Western country beyond the Mississippi 
was only good for that — a home for the Indians. But 
if the Indians fight as the Prophet says they will, and 
if the British help them on, then all this talk of protec- 
tion and help is just rubbish. I can’t see through it 
myself, Daniel. I don’t exactly like it. I wonder what 
Mr. Williams will say about it ? I must ask him. He 
generally sets me straight. But I do like the old chief. 
Black Hawk. What a general he’ll make in our Indian 
empire! I wonder just what rank Mr. Williams will 
give the old hero ? I must ask him that, too.” 

But Joe Harvey was not to see or question his “ king 
of France and America ” so speedily as he expected. 
For as they were about to turn from the narrow trail 
along the south bank of the Rock River into the 


6o 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


broader thoroughfare of the great Sac trail to the lakes 
and Canada, a sharp command rang out, — 

“ Halt ! ” 

Joe halted. He had no choice, indeed, for there, 
barring his path at the junction of the two trails, stood 
a smooth-faced young lieutenant of regulars and a file 
of men. 

“Two white men and an Injun,” said the lieutenant, 
checking them off. “ No,” he added, after examining 
the face of Daniel Bread more closely and looking 
sharply at Joe, “a boy and two Injuns. What are you 
doing here, eh } Come, give an account of yourselves.” 

Honest Joe answered at once. He was never afraid 
to speak the truth, and, really, as you must have dis- 
covered ere this, he was not “ cut out ” for a diplomat — 
another word for the man who can carefully dress up 
the truth — or a lie. 

“Why, sir,” he replied, “ we’ve just been to see Black 
Hawk.” 

“ Black Hawk, eh ? and what might be your business 
with that old redskin .? ” demanded the lieutenant. 

Joe replied, just a bit importantly, “ I went to con- 
fer with him, sir.” 

“ Hm ! ” The lieutenant looked still more sharply 
at this boy who had been “ conferring ” with Black 
Hawk — the rebellious chief of the Sacs who had, so 


HOW BLACK HAWK HELPED. l6l 

it was said, taken the war-path against the white set- 
tlers. “And two Injuns with you. Tell me, now, 
what was the mighty business upon which you sought 
a conference, with Black Hawk.?” 

“Nothing to be ashamed of, sir,” retorted Joe, who 
did not take kindly to the cross-examination of this 
somewhat supercilious lieutenant of regulars. “The 
old chief is in the right, let me tell you. I went to 
him for a conference about — ” 

Here Joe Harvey stopped short. His business was 
secret. It was not his to tell. Perhaps, too, there 
were things about it that would not sound so well to 
this autocratic regular officer as they did to him, — 
Joe Harvey, aide and envoy of Eleazer Williams, 
“emperor of the West.” His mouth was sealed. 

“ Come, sir, out with it,” demanded the lieutenant, 
sharply. “What was your business with Black Hawk 
— you and these two Injuns.?” 

“I cannot tell you, sir,” replied Joe, stoutly. “That 
is my affair.” 

“ Oh, that’s your affair, is it .? ” mimicked the officer. 
“Well, we’ll have to make it Uncle Sam’s affair, I 
reckon. You are all under arrest. Sergeant Mea- 
chem, take ’em in charge. We’ll march ’em back to 
the fort, and see whether General Atkinson can force 
this mighty secret out. About face! March!” 


M 


i 62 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


The file of United States regulars closed about the 
three prisoners, and, turning in their tracks, the party 
headed westward for Fort Armstrong on the river. 

Joe made one final protest. 

“You have no right to treat us so, sir,” he said. 
“Who are you and what cause have you to stop us 
in the road } ” 

“The right of war, my lad,” the lieutenant replied, 
with a smile at the boy’s dignity. “ The Injuns are 
on the war-path, and all suspicious persons are to be 
stopped on the road. But that I may further satisfy 
your Excellency,” he added, with a most exasperating 
bow, “ I will inform you that you and your ‘ escort ’ 
are prisoners to a detachment of Company B, First 
United States Infantry, Lieutenant Robert Anderson 
commanding, at your service, sir. Are you satisfied.? 
Because, you see, you’ll have to be. March ! ” 

And westward to Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, 
in charge of Lieutenant Robert Anderson and his 
regulars, went Joe Harvey, prisoner of war. His mis- 
sion as ambassador and envoy had suddenly come to 
a close he had not at all bargained for. 


CHAPTER XL 


THE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 

I SPIRITED and quite cast down by this sudden 



“overset” to all his plans, Joe Harvey rode on, 
for a while, sad and silent. 

But Joe was not a boy to willingly keep silence long. 
Besides, his affairs began to trouble him, and there 
were certain complications and questions of right 
which, kept down because of his great expectations, 
now began to assert themselves with most unpleasant 
pertinacity. 

He looked up suddenly and then looked closely at 
the lieutenant in command with so puzzled an expres- 
sion that the officer returned it with a look of inquiry, 
and, dropping back beside his prisoner, laid a hand 
upon his bridle-rein. 

“What’s troubling you, my lad.?” he said. 

Joe looked into the clear, kindly, truthful eyes of 
the young officer and met his glance with one equally 
honest and trusting. 

“Tell me, sir,” he said, “is it really treasonable for 


163 


164 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


me to have had communication with the enemy of 
the United States. Is Black Hawk an enemy.?” 

“You know best, my boy,” Lieutenant Anderson re- 
plied ; “ you were with him last. Did he talk like enemy 
or friend .? ” 

Joe remembered Black Hawk’s words of defiance ; he 
remembered the Prophet’s hostile harangue ; he recalled 
his own thrill of enthusiasm. Certainly, the situation 
had not been a friendly one toward the United States. 
And yet Joe knew that he had not considered the 
“council” from the hostile side. He had simply been 
looking at the matter from his point of view ; it had fed 
his dreams of power, flattered his ambition, and made 
him see himself as a future possible great man. He 
had thought only of that Indian empire of the West 
in which he was to play so important a part; he had 
thought nothing of the United States; a son of the 
republic, he had, for the moment, forgotten his own 
fatherland. 

Lieutenant Robert Anderson’s eyes were still fixed 
searchingly upon him ; the lieutenant’s hand still rested 
upon the boy’s shoulder. 

“ Well,” said the lieutenant, “ is he enemy or friend .?” 

“Why,” replied Joe, hesitating just a bit in his 
reply, “I shouldn’t really call him a friend — just 
now.” 


THE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 


I6.S 


The lieutenant smiled. 

“ No, nor ever will be,” he responded. “ Black Hawk 
has ever been a restless, scheming, defiant, and hostile 
Indian. He is an ambitious savage with a strong hold 
upon his people by the designing way in which he 
appeals to their prejudices, their passions, and their su- 
perstitions. He hates the white people, especially the 
people of the United States, and he is the tool and ally 
of the British enemies of the republic, who, across 
the Canadian border, forever scheme and plot against 
the growing power of the United States. He was by 
the side of the chief Tecumseh when he was killed at the 
battle of the Thames ; he fought for the British through- 
out the War of 1812, and, ever since that glorious con- 
flict ended in our triumph, he has been the close friend 
and secret ally of the British agents in Canada, bought 
by their presents, held by their flatteries, and treasuring 
up wrath and hatred against the Americans who, foot 
by foot, are pressing upon the useless Indians in this 
fertile Western country which the Lord has given us to 
occupy and improve. Black Hawk is a bar to Ameri- 
can civilization, my boy. Is not that being our enemy .? ” 

“And yet Mr. Webster told me, sir,” said Joe, “that 
this Western country — beyond the Mississippi, he 
meant — was of no use to us. He said we just ought 
to leave it to the savages and wild beasts to whom it 


l66 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


belongs ; he said it is a wild, worthless area with which 
we could never hope to do anything.” 

Mr. Webster ? ” queried the lieutenant ; “ what Mr. 
Webster ? Not ‘ Black Dan ’ ? not Daniel Webster who 
made the great Union speech } ” 

“Yes, sir,” Joe replied; “he told me that in Wash- 
ington.” 

“ Is that so ? Is he a friend of yours ? ” said Anderson. 

“ Sure,” Joe responded. “ Why ” — and he almost 
laughed aloud as he recalled the occurrence — “I taught 
him how to ride the velocipede in front of Boulanger’s.” 

“ On G Street ? I know the place,” said Lieutenant 
Anderson ; “ and you taught Black Dan to ride on one 
of those new-fangled whirligig contrivances ? Tell us 
about it ” 

So Joe told the story, over which both he and the 
lieutenant laughed heartily, and then Joe followed it up 
with his story about Captain Dewey and the head of 
General Jackson, until the lieutenant, surprised as well 
as amused at this boy who seemed so “ chummy ” with 
the great ones at Washington, but whom he had appre- 
hended “ giving aid and comfort to the enemy,” grew 
naturally very curious as to the identity of his prisoner. 

“Jackson, and Clay, and Webster .!* You know them 
all.?” he said. “Why, what’s your name, boy, and 
where do you hail from.?” 


THE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 167 

Joe answered truthfully as to his name and lineage, 
explaining, as he always felt proud of doing, how the 
“ Lafayette ” had become a part of his name. 

The lieutenant turned in his saddle, and grasping 
his prisoner by both shoulders almost unseated him, in 
his interest and surprise. 

“Godson and namesake of Lafayette!” he cried; 
“ son of a Revolutioner, and out here conferring with 
that murderous rascal. Black Hawk, and his low-down 
Injuns! How can that be, boy.? I don’t understand 
it. What are you doing here, anyhow .? Who sent you 
here .? ” 

The old pain of doubt and self-questioning struck 
to Joe’s heart again. In his lively and pleasant story- 
telling to this friendly young lieutenant, he had quite 
forgotten his real position. Amid different surround- 
ings and in other atmospheres how singularly different 
things may appear, may th^y not.? What seemed 
promising in Eleazer Williams’s society and glorious 
in the conference with Black Hawk and the Prophet, 
seemed wrong and almost traitorous in the company 
of this correct and loyal young lieutenant of the First 
United States Infantry. Joe’s conscience troubled him 
as it never had before. The lieutenant’s inquiry made 
matters look black and threatening. What, indeed, 
was he — he, the godson of Lafayette, the loving son 


68 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


of the republic — doing here, hobnobbing with the 
Indian hostiles who sought the injury of the republic 
for whose establishment his father and his godfather 
had fought.? Was Eleazer Williams a traitor, or was 
he really the philanthropist and benefactor he declared 
himself .? 

But whatever he might be, he was, at least, Joe’s 
patron and chieftain, whom the boy had promised loyally 
to follow and obey. His secrets must be held inviolate. 
It would not be right or honest to disclose them to this 
soldier of the United States. 

“I cannot tell you, sir,” he replied at last. “I gave 
my word.” 

Oh, very well, then. Have it as you will,” Lieuten- 
ant Anderson said, turning from the boy in a huff. 
“You’ll sing a different song when the general gets 
at you, at the fort.” 

He spurred ahead, but as quickly wheeled about and 
again rode by Joe’s side. 

“ I don’t want you to incriminate yourself, Joe Har- 
vey,” he said, “though you do puzzle me. Whatever 
you tell me must, of course, be reported at headquarters, 
and — I don’t want to see you in trouble. I’ve — I’ve 
taken a fancy to you, Joe. You’re a fine lad with a 
great pedigree. You’re one of the boys of whom the 
republic may be proud, if you’ll only live up to your 


THE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 1 69 

name. And I think you’re being tried ‘ as by fire,’ just 
now. But let me tell you this. If ever I am placed in 
a position where I must decide between my country and 
my desires, my loyalty and my ambitions, I don’t think 
I shall hesitate an instant. The republic educated me ; 
the republic gave me my rank ; the republic trusts 
and believes in me, and if ever I am called upon to 
defend it, even from my own kindred and people, please 
God ! the republic shall depend upon me to do my 
duty and fight its foes. The godson of Lafayette 
should do nothing to endanger or annoy the republic, 
for whose existence Lafayette fought so gloriously.” 

Then the lieutenant rode slowly forward to the head 
of his little company, leaving Joe Harvey still silent 
and uncommunicative, but very thoughtful. He had 
never considered his position yet as a question of duty 
to the United States. He had only thought of his duty 
to Eleazer Williams and his desires for a successful 
future for Joseph Lafayette Harvey. But the words of 
the young officer stirred and thrilled him. He did a 
“lot of thinking” along the broad trail to Fort Arm- 
strong, by the Great River, and the words of the honest 
lieutenant sank deep in his heart. 

They were never really forgotten; and years after- 
ward, when Joe Harvey had come to man’s estate, and 
the unity and very life of the republic were threatened by 


lyo THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

armed foes of its own household, he recalled that ride 
to Fort Armstrong. The threatening “if” had come, 
and, as he read the story, Joe felt that he heard again 
the same tone of unshaken loyalty to conviction and 
duty when the gray-headed major of regulars, belea- 
guered in Fort Sumter, — a handful against a host, — 
returned the immortal answer to the rebellious tempta- 
tion to throw up his commission or surrender his post : 
“ I am a Southern man ; but I have been assigned to 
the defence of Charleston harbor, and I intend to de- 
fend it.” 

Joseph Harvey was thrilled; he almost knew, before- 
hand, what would be the reply of Major Robert Ander- 
son to the demands of armed treason. He recalled 
that ride to Fort Armstrong; he knew the temper 
and the faith of the brave commander of Fort Sumter, 
and he thanked God for Major Robert Anderson, as 
did the entire nation. 

But the boy of 1852 was not the man of 1861. Like 
the wayward Desdemona, Joe Harvey, riding to Fort 
Armstrong, “ did perceive here a divided duty.” So 
he rode on, silent, thoughtful, and decidedly worried. 
It takes experience and manhood to truly test the 
real metal of manliness and loyalty. 

Lieutenant Anderson had no further speech with 
his young prisoner; and, before long, the rolling 


fHE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 

stream of the turbid Mississippi lay broad before them, 
and from the bluffs they saw in mid-stream the wooded 
shores of picturesque Rock Island, and the fluttering 
flag of the Union waving above the palisades and 
bastions of Fort Armstrong — the rallying point for 
the white man’s defence against the uprising of Black 
Hawk and his braves. 

Grim and silent still, though one, by searching, 
might have detected a gleam of mingled humor and 
pity in his eye, the lieutenant ferried his prisoners 
across to the island, and reported to the commandant 
at the fort. 

The “ pomp and circumstance of war ” lay all about 
Fort Armstrong. The “ unpreparedness ” which is 
the chief obstacle in all campaigns, large or small, 
ancient or modern, was very much in evidence during 
the opening days of the Black Hawk War, and signs 
of it were apparent all about this important frontier 
post of the United States, set in mid-stream where 
the Rock River meets the Mississippi. Volunteers 
and regulars were encamped in and around the fort — 
awkward prairie boys, undisciplined frontiersmen, reck- 
less voyageurs, Indian scouts and allies, stolid regulars, 
teamsters, boatmen, negroes, mules, horses, and dogs, 
stores and camp equipments, boats and baggage 
wagons, in order and in disorder, made up the “ser- 


17^ the godson of LAFAYETTE. 

ried array ” with which the republic aimed to overawe 
or exterminate the rebellious Indians of the Western 
frontier. 

Joe Harvey would have enjoyed immensely all this 
hurry and excitement and military show in the midst 
of which he suddenly found himself, had it not been 
for one important phase of it. He was a prisoner, 
and at the mercy of the official head of all this warlike 
business and bustle, the general in command, Henry 
Atkinson, Major-general U. S. A. 

Before the general’s quarters. Lieutenant Anderson 
halted to report. 

“ General,” he said, saluting his superior, “ I beg 
to report a reconnoissance with my company, as 
ordered, as far as the rapids of the Rock. No 
Indians in force, or any sign of hostiles but these 
prisoners.” 

The grizzled North Carolinian — a son of the Revo- 
lution, a fighter of 1812 — wheeled about and gave one 
look at the prisoners. 

“ Hm ! Two Injuns and a boy, eh } ” he com- 
mented. Couldn’t you find anything better to bring 
in, lieutenant ? Where did you bag ’em ? ” 

“Just where the trail from the Prophet’s village 
strikes the big Sac trail, sir,” replied the lieutenant. 
“ They were coming down the river, sir.” 


THE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 


173 


“What do they say for themselves.?” 

“ Nothing, sir. The white boy is uncommunicative.” 

“ Eh .? Mum, is he .? ” said the general. “ We’ll 
make him speak, I reckon. Take ’em away, lieutenant. 
I’m. too busy now. We’ll examine ’em later.” 

“ He’s an important capture, sir,” reported the lieu- 
tenant, pointing at Joe. “ He’s just had a conference 
with Black Hawk, I think. Permit me to urge upon 
you his speedy examination, general, and to introduce 
him. He’s quite a character : Joseph Lafayette Har- 
vey, general ; a son of a Revolutionary captain ; a god- 
son of Lafayette ; a friend of Webster and Clay and 
President Jackson.” 

“ Hm ! All that .? ” Again the general looked 
sharply at poor Joe. “What’s all that doing among 
the hostiles.? Special peace envoy from the govern- 
ment .? ” 

“ I think not, sir,” the lieutenant responded with a 
bit of a twinkle in his eye. “ He seems to be out for 
personal glory.” 

“We’ll make it personal, then, with a vengeance,” 
said the general, grimly.” A godson of Lafayette 
among the hostiles, eh .? Well, I’m too busy with this 
snarl now. My compliments to Colonel Taylor, lieu- 
tenant. Tell him to examine these prisoners and 
report. After that, lieutenant, I need you. When 


174 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


you’re through with your — important — capture” (this 
with a grim yet half-humorous nod toward Joe) “report 
to me for other duties, lieutenant; I have decided to 
detail you as inspector-general of the Illinois militia.” 

Lieutenant Robert Anderson saluted with a gratified 
smile. 

“ I am honored by your selection, general,” he said. 
“ I will hasten this matter and report immediately.” 

But as he turned away he muttered, half audibly : 
“ Inspector-general of militia, eh ? Well, they’ll need 
a heap of inspecting. I’m thinking.” 

They crossed the parade and reported to Colonel 
Taylor — Colonel Zachary Taylor of the regulars, 
afterward the captor of Santa Anna, hero of the 
Mexican War, and President of the United States. 

The future victor of Buena Vista received the com- 
mandant’s order and the lieutenant’s report. He, too, 
heard with surprise the social and historic connections 
of Joseph Lafayette Harvey. 

“ Godson of Lafayette, eh ! ” exclaimed the colonel. 
“What’s he doing hereabouts.? Trying to improve 
upon the marquis and run away, as he did, to aid the 
insurgents .? Where’s your home, son .? ” 

Where was it, indeed.? Poor Joe began to feel as if 
he had neither home nor country. 

“ Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania, sir,” he replied. 


THE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 


175 


“ A son of Brandywine battlefield, eh ! You don’t 
say so!” the colonel cried. “Why, that’s where La- 
fayette got his wound.” 

“Yes, sir: I know the very place,” Joe hastened to 
say. “ My father fought there, too.” 

“You don’t say so! a double Revolutionary pedi- 
gree,” said the general, bending a closer glance beneath 
his shaggy eyebrows. “See here, son, what are you 
doing among these rascally Injuns ^ Who sent you.? ” 

There was no escape. Joe must make a full breast 
of it. 

“The Reverend Eleazer Williams, sir, missionary at 
Green Bay,” he replied. 

“ Oh-h ! P-r-r-r ! ” the colonel gave almost a sigh 
of relief. “No great harm here, lieutenant. He’s 
only on a peace mission from the reverend, I reckon. 
Couldn’t you work it, son .? ” 

Joe’s heart gave a leap. He saw a way out. 

“Well, no, sir, not exactly,” he replied. “They 
didn’t just seem willing to talk peace.” 

But Lieutenant Anderson was deep in thought. 

“Williams ! Eleazer Williams ! ” he repeated. “Why, 
colonel, that’s the man who downed Colonel Stambaugh 
and is trying to bring the New York Indians out West, 
isn’t it .? ” 

“ Why, yes, I believe it is. What’s he up to, do you 


iy6 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


suppose } ” the colonel said. “ We don’t want any 
more of those redskins mixing up with our Western 
ones. They’re enough to handle, of themselves. The 
New York Injuns, eh,” — he looked shrewdly at the 
civilized garb of Daniel Bread, — “ here’s one of ’em, 
I reckon. What’s your tribe, brother } ” 

The Oneida looked at his questioner stolidly. 

“ I am of the Six Nations,” he replied. “ I am a 
Christian Oneida.” 

“ Oneida, eh } and Christian, too,” commented the 
colonel. “ Better leave your Christianity at home. I’m 
thinking. There’s no market for it here, just now, 
among these red villains of the Sacs and Foxes, eh, 
lieutenant } I reckon we needn’t worry ourselves about 
your prisoners, though. A Christian Oneida and an 
assistant missionary. But a godson of Lafayette ! 
Well, your godfather wasn’t exactly in the preaching 
line, though he was a good bit of a missionary, eh, 
lieutenant.? The lad is of too good stock to hold as 
prisoner, I reckon. Better turn ’em loose and steer 
’em back for Green Bay. Missionaries’ll have to take 
a back seat, just about now, eh, lieutenant .? ” 

The lieutenant saluted, and nodded to Joe with a 
friendly smile. The boy’s spirits rose visibly. His 
luck was not to desert him, he decided. 

“Thank you, colonel,” he said. 


THE VALUE OF A GODFATHER. 


177 


Colonel Zachary Taylor turned on his heel; the 
lieutenant extended his hand to Joe. 

“ Oh, lieutenant,” said the colonel, turning his head 
and speaking in an official but perfunctory way, 
“better observe the regulations, even if we are in a 
hurry. We ought to go through the form in this 
case, even if you have bagged a batch of harmless 
missionaries. Detail one of your men to search the 
prisoners. Then let ’em go, if he finds nothing to 
report.” 

Joe was happy now. He rejoiced that his letter to 
Black Hawk had already been delivered. He had no 
other papers about him. He felt that he had noth- 
ing to fear. The influence of Lafayette had been 
his salvation, and, once again, he was proud of his 
godfather. 

Ah! Joe, Joe! where were your wits.? One thing 
you had forgotten. 

“ Meachem,” said Lieutenant Anderson to his ser- 
geant, “go through the boy and see what you can 
find.” 

The sergeant’s hands went through the motions. 
He, too, had a respect and affection for this godson 
of the nation’s hero — Lafayette. 

“Nothing here, lieutenant,” he reported. “Just a 
few odds and ends like all boys carry. Surprisin’, 


N 


178 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


sir, what a lot of things they can pack away in their 
pockets, ain’t it? No, he’s all right. He’s — oh, hold 
on ! wait a bit, lad ; here’s something I skipped.” 
He thrust his hand again into the breast of the boy’s 
rough-and-ready pioneer shirt. “ Hullo ! my stars ! 
what’s this ? Lieutenant ! Colonel ! Look a’ here 
what I’ve found in his shirt front ! ” 

He held his “find” aloft. 

“A piece of wampum,” said the lieutenant. 

“But do you notice the color, sir?” cried Sergeant 
Meachem. 

“ Great Scott ! ” exclaimed the colonel, springing 
forward and snatching the wampum from the ser- 
geant’s hand ; “ it’s red. What does this mean, boy ? 
It’s red wampum. It’s a war message from Black 
Hawk ! ” 


T 


CHAPTER XII. 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND, 



HE color rushed into Joe Harvey’s brown cheeks. 


A That unlucky piece of wampum ! He had for- 
gotten all about it. Indeed, he had scarcely considered 
it as anything dangerous, even when, with so much 
of enthusiasm, he had received it — was it from Black 
Hawk or the Prophet } He had really forgotten which. 

“ Speak up, boy ! What does this mean .? Where 
did you get it.^ Who gave it to yoii.-^” demanded the 
colonel, sternly. 

But the lieutenant regarded the boy. 

“Colonel,” he said to his superior, “if you will per- 
mit me, I must say I believe this lad is more sinned 
against than sinning. I am strongly of the opinion 
that some one is making an unconscious tool of him. 
I will not believe that a boy of Revolutionary parent- 
age, and with Lafayette as a godfather, could so belie 
his ancestry and wilfully be disloyal to the republic. 
I’ve heard something about this Parson Williams. 
Stambaugh wrote one of our regimental mess about 


179 


i8o 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


him, I remember, and he said the fellow was either a 
trickster, a schemer, or had some sort of bee buzzing 
in his bonnet. This boy has simply fallen under his 
spell and is being used as a cat’s paw. I really do 
not believe he knew the meaning of this red wampum 
message. How could a boy from a quiet Pennsylvania 
farmhouse know about the wiles and methods of a 
red chief of the savage Sacs ? ” 

The colonel stroked his chin thoughtfully. 

“You may be right, in a way, lieutenant,” he ad- 
mitted; “but duty is duty, sir. Here is a suspected 
person bearing an Injun war message. A spy is a spy, 
wherever he comes from, and must be dealt with as 
such, or what’s to become of the service and its disci- 
pline } Didn’t you know you were carrying back such 
a message to the enemies of the United States, boy ? ” 

For his good right hand Joe Harvey would not have 
lied. 

“ I do not know, sir,” he replied. “ I did feel so 
badly for the Indians, as Black Hawk told me of their 
wrongs, and I was so excited over the Prophet’s words 
that I believe I did, at their dog feast, promise them 
Mr. Williams’s friendship and help. But I never 
thought of war, sir. I thought it was just to tell the 
truth of the matter to the President — the Great Father, 
as the Injuns call him.” 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. l8l 

“ Imagine Old Hickory feeling sorry for the red- 
skins, lieutenant,” laughed Colonel Taylor. “ The con- 
queror of the Creeks and the walloper of the British 
would scarcely feel any compunction over settling 
things as sternly with these British-backed Sacs and 
Foxes, eh.? The President, sir,” he added, turning upon 
Joe, “is pledged to execute the laws and maintain the 
safety of the republic. These permit neither sympathy 
nor mercy toward rebellious and murderous savages. 
Nor toward spies, sir — nor toward spies. Didn’t your 
father ever tell you how old Israel Putnam served 
’em ? He who bears that piece of red wampum is an 
enemy of the republic.” 

“ May the Oneida speak ? ” 

The query came from Daniel Bread, who thus far 
had kept silence. 

“ Go ahead, Injun. What have you to say ? ” de- 
manded the colonel. 

“The fault is mine,” said the Oneida. “I, too, was 
led away by the talk of the Sac chief and the Win- 
nebago Prophet. The redmen of the East have suf- 
fered much from the white men, who have taken our 
lands and now would drive us away. I forgot the 
teachings of peace and good-will the missionaries have 
given us, — Mr. Williams and his friends. It was I 
who took the wampum from the hands of the Prophet 


i 82 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


and put it into the hands of my young brother. I was 
wrong. I am sorry. Do not punish him. Here stand 
I, the Oneida. Do with me as you will.” 

Again the colonel stroked his chin thoughtfully. 
Again he studied his prisoners closely. 

“ Spoken like a true man, chief — if you are a chief,” 
he said at length. “ I don’t know, lieutenant ; I believe 
you are right. This boy and his Injun friend have 
been carried away by a mistaken enthusiasm ; they do 
say that Black Hawk puts up a strong case for his side, 
and that the other rascal — the fellow they call the 
Prophet — is a master hand at a speech. They’ve sim- 
ply pulled the wool over the eyes of these missionary 
scholars and got them to think they are doing the Lord’s 
work in trying to make friends with ’em. Friends with 
a lot of crafty, murderous, scalping redskins ! I don’t 
know just what to do. Great Hickory ! Yes, I do. We 11 
send ’em back to Black Hawk with our message. The 
general has just charged me to send a despatch to 
Black Hawk, telling him to clear out and get across the 
river or it’ll be worse for him. I’ve sent one such 
message by our scouts: without any answer. Now I’ll 
send the fellow to it by these mutual friends. Will you 
take it, son ? Here’s the chance to show your loyalty 
as a son of the republic.” 

“The colonel’s plan is a good one, Joe Harvey,” said 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 1 83 

the lieutenant, answering the boy’s look of inquiry. 
“ Citizen and soldier, man and boy, we have all of us 
one duty — it is the greatest — to be true and loyal to the 
republic. That is what your father fought for at Bran- 
dywine ; it is what Lafayette risked his life to do ; it is 
what brave men have died for to show their patriotism 
and their faith. We lay a duty upon you. Do it, Joe, 
and shame those who would call you traitor.” 

Not an instant did Joe Harvey hesitate now. 

“ I’ll do it, sir,” he said. 

“ Good boy ! ” cried Colonel Taylor ; and “good boy!” 
echoed Lieutenant Anderson. 

“ See that they have a bit to eat,” said the colonel. 
“ Then give them their ponies and a safe conduct, and 
let the boy carry back his red wampum as the war mes- 
sage of the White Beaver — that’s what the Injuns call 
General Atkinson, I believe — to Black Hawk, the chief 
of the Sacs. As for you, Oneida,” he added, turning 
to Daniel Bread, “you have the chance to prove the 
worth of the Christianity the missionaries have taught 
you by undoing the evil you have done this white boy. 
See them safely off, lieutenant, and then report to the 
general. I’ll make this action all right with him. I 
understand he’s done the right thing by detailing you as 
inspector-general of the militia. These volunteers need 
a careful and reliable man like you to set ’em straight 


184 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


and keep ’em so. They’ll stand a lot of disciplining, I 
should say, if they’re all like the samples the governor 
has sent us.” 

He returned the lieutenant’s salute, gave Joe a good- 
by nod, and a final caution to him to prove the worth 
of his name. Then Lieutenant Anderson gave the 
enfranchised ones a hasty lunch, and saw them across 
the river and on their way back to the Prophet’s town. 

“Good-by, Joe Harvey,” he said. “You’ve got the 
right stuff in you, I believe, and now’s the time to show 
it. Remember that loyal service to the republic is the 
highest duty of every true American. Be as true to 
this as your father was, as Lafayette was, as all those 
great ones you saw at Washington are. We may 
all of us have different opinions as to method and 
means, Joe Harvey; but when enemies threaten the 
republic we’ll march shoulder to shoulder. United we 
stand, divided we fall, you know. Don’t help divide ; 
and, Joe, don’t trust too much to that man Williams. 
He may lead you astray, if he’s what I fear he is. Now 
then, off you go ! Good-by, my boy, and bring us back 
Black Hawk’s answer to our message. Here it is, fresh 
from the general’s pen. Read it out to that redskin 
rebel, good and strong.” 

Things had taken such sudden and surprising turns 
with Joe Harvey that he was just a trifle bewildered as 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 1 85 

he rode back along the great Sac trail. But of one 
thing he was determined — to do his duty, as the 
lieutenant had bidden him. 

Just what this duty was he felt confident he now 
knew. But the lieutenant’s warning as to the sincerity 
of Eleazer Williams gave him food for thought, and he 
rode on as silent as his companion, the Christian Oneida. 
Daniel Bread, too, was evidently thinking hard. Enough, 
certainly, had happened on that eventful day to keep 
them both a-thinking. 

At the place of their capture they left the great trail, 
and taking the smaller one along the river reached, in 
due time, the rapids of the Rock. Before them lay the 
village of the Prophet, alive with a concourse of red 
warriors, gathering at the call of their chief. They 
were speedily challenged by the Indian sentinels, 
watchful for a white advance; but the Pottawatomie, 
who had come unquestioned from his captivity, an- 
nounced their mission as messengers from the White 
Beaver, and, once again, Joe Harvey stood before the 
lodge of White Cloud, the Prophet. 

There Black Hawk sat in conference with his chief 
counsellors. In the open space beyond the lodges the 
young braves of the confederated hostiles were working 
themselves into the frenzy of enlistment that included 
the war-dance and the chant, and culminated in the 


1 86 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

final act of “striking the war post” — equivalent to 
signing an agreement. 

But about the council fire of the lodges sat the 
old Sac chieftain and his war men, gravely facing 
the decision they had made, — death to the white 
men ! 

Suddenly Joe Harvey stood before them. 

Black Hawk rose to his feet, surprise mingling with 
his courteous greeting. 

“My little brother is welcome,” he said, extending 
his hand in friendship. “ His return is swift. Surely 
he cannot have seen the Big Water. Where, then, did 
he meet my brothers, the black-coat and his braves ? 
Are they near at hand to help the Sacs who dare to 
stand in fight for their homes .? ” 

As the Pottawatomie interpreted the words of the 
chief, Joe gathered his wits for his reply. The 
straightest course he believed lay in the truth. It 
was not like him to choose any other path. 

He drew from his pocket the message from General 
Atkinson. 

“Ugh!” grunted the Prophet. “Again the talking 
paper. It is men — it is warriors we would have.” 

“Chief,” said Joe, through the interpreter, address- 
ing himself to Black Hawk, “ I have bad news for you. 
On our way from your lodges to the great trail we 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 1 8 / 

were stopped by United States soldiers and taken as 
prisoners to General Atkinson at the big fort in the 
river. There your red wampum was found upon me, 
and I should have been punished but for my good 
brother, this Oneida ” — he placed a hand in gratitude 
on Daniel Bread’s arm. “We were finally permitted 
to go, upon our promise to deliver to you this message 
from General Atkinson.” 

The Prophet sprang to his feet, his single eye glow- 
ering with wrath and cruel designs. 

“ Spies from the White Beaver ! We have spies in 
the lodges ! Ho, brothers ! brain them, burn them 
with fire ! spies, they are spies ! ” he cried. 

From the braves posturing about the war post still 
came the monotonous, measured song of the war-dance ; 
from the war council within the lodge came nods and 
guttural words of approval in reply to the Prophet’s 
demand. The standing Indians at the lodge entrance 
gathered about the messengers from the White Beaver 
to bind and lead them to the torture. 

But old Black Hawk waved them aside. 

“ Patience, my brothers ! ” he commanded. “ Let no 
one touch these messengers from the White Beaver. 
Because he is evil, shall we be also ? Let us hear the 
words he speaks to us by the talking paper.” 

Then Joe Harvey, remembering the lieutenant’s 


1 88 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

advice to read out the general’s message “ good and 
strong,” delivered the White Beaver’s message. 

“ General Atkinson,” he said, “ writes to you. Black 
Hawk, chief of the Sacs. He commands you to with- 
draw at once, with your warriors, your women, and 
your lodges, across the Mississippi, or he will drive 
you there with his soldiers and his guns. More soldiers 
are coming, more guns are loading for the defence of 
the settlements. If you and your braves remain here 
to disobey and threaten him, the Great Father will 
punish you with fire in your lodges and guns at your 
hearts; for you must go back. You remain here at 
your peril ; for if you will not go peaceably, then 
General Atkinson will march against you at once to 
disperse, punish, and destroy you.” 

Again the fiery Prophet came at the young reader 
with wrath in his eye. 

“ Death to the White Beaver’s spy ! ” he cried. 
“Would he threaten us — warriors and braves — the 
sons of Oh-su-ke-uck, the brothers of On-ta-ga-mi 
Up! Let us burn and destroy; let us sweep away 
every white robber — his home, his women, his chil- 
dren — before the White Beaver can fling his long- 
knives at our throats. Up, brothers, up I Death to the 
White Beaver I Away with his liars and his spies ! ” 

Again the throng of enraged savages closed upon 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 1 89 

Joe and his companion. Again Black Hawk waved 
them back, while Daniel Bread, standing proudly 
erect with folded arms, but with pleading in his voice, 
faced his angry foemen. 

“ See, my brothers,” he said, “ I am a chief of the 
Oneidas ; I know how to die as becomes a warrior. But, 
hear my words ! We are no spies ; we are true men. 
The White Beaver gave us liberty that we might speak 
the truth to you. I did wrong to eat the dog feast 
with you. I did wrong to take the red wampum. I 
am a Christian man who was tempted of the devil — 
the devil who rouses the white man and the redman 
to murder and to war. Hear me, I say. Let there 
be peace between the white man and the red. I know 
the power and strength of my white brothers. I have 
seen their lodges. I have stood beside their council 
fires. They are more in number than the sands. It 
is death to stand against them. Oh, let the Great 
Spirit, who is the father of red and white alike, send 
his peace upon you that you may live like brothers 
in the land, and not see your lodges wither before 
the white man’s power, and your wives and little ones 
fall by the way, as they descend upon you. Peace, 
peace, my brothers. And if my death will bring this 
about, here I stand, a chief of the Oneidas. I am 
ready, strike; but beware of your fate. My white 


1 90 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

brothers are determined ; my white brothers are strong. 
You cannot stand in war against them.” 

The hatchet of the Prophet swung in air. The 
gleam of hate burned in his eye. 

“ Death to the renegade ! death to the soft-shell ! ” 
he cried. “ He is no chief ; he is no warrior ; he is 
but a woman, a slave to the white robber.” 

But the restraining hand of Black Hawk flung aside 
the threatening hatchet. 

“ Peace, my brother ; we are no murderers,” he said. 
“We respect the messengers of the White Beaver, 
even though, he speak but as women speak. There 
can be no peace between the white man and the red. 
Go back to the White Beaver. Say to him and his 
war chiefs that his words are but as the wind. We are 
warriors who fear them not. Say to him, if he wishes 
to fight, let him come on. We will not be driven 
away. We stand here for our homes and our rights. 
We will not fall upon him to strike the first blow 
in war ; but if he comes against us, let him beware. 
We fight to kill ! Let the Great Spirit judge to whom 
he shall give the victory. Here we stand. We will 
not recross the Great River.” 

“ Good ! the chief is wise,” came the words of the 
council. Only the Prophet stood determined and reck- 
less. At last he, too, lowered his murderous hatchet. 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. IQ I 

“ So be it,” he said. “ Let that answer go back to 
the White Beaver. But not by these, O brothers. Let 
us keep fast hold of this white boy and this coward 
Oneida. Let us hold them as pledge for the white 
man’s faith. Let this Pottawatomie bear back the 
message of defiance, but keep fast hold upon these 
two until we win the victory, and join our strength 
to that of the black-coat by the Big Sea Water, who 
will bring the red warriors of the East to join us in 
our war.” 

Black Hawk bowed to the will of the majority, 
which announced itself as strong in approval of the 
Prophet’s advice. The half-breed was sent speeding 
back with the defiance of the Sacs, and Joe Harvey 
with the Oneida was held a captive in the lodges of 
the hostiles. 

That very night, however, the Prophet’s town was 
deserted by Black Hawk and his band, and along 
the east bank of the river the chief of the Sacs, with 
five hundred warriors and his women, children, and 
camp equipage, took the trail that led to where, beside 
the Kishwaukee River, where it joins the Rock, were 
encamped those of the Pottawatomies who were de- 
bating whether or not to take the war-path with 
him against the white invaders. 

Near the mouth of Sycamore creek, opposite the 


192 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


present town of Byron, and seven miles ' below the 
camp of the Pottawatomies, Black Hawk stopped 
his march and, sending the most of his people for- 
ward to join the Pottawatomies, waited in an appointed 
place, with one hundred of his braves and counsellors, 
for the conference with the hesitating Pottawatomies. 

But Shaubena, chief of the Pottawatomies, had too 
healthy a respect for the increasing strength and power 
of the white men to risk plunging his tribe into war. 
Instead, he prevailed upon the greater part of his 
tribesmen to remain neutral, and let Black Hawk and 
the White Beaver fight it out. So, when Black Hawk 
met the Pottawatomies in council, he found that the 
war party among his allies could only promise about 
a hundred warriors as a fighting addition to his force. 

An Indian’s nature is as variable as that of a child. 
From the heights of confidence Black Hawk dropped 
to despair. He had counted upon the Pottawatomies, 
the Winnebagoes, the Chippewas, and the Ottawas, as 
the Prophet had promised, and here, at the first ap- 
proach, only one hundred warriors could be found to 
pledge themselves to join him on the war-path. He 
called Joe Harvey to his side. 

“ Did my little brother see many warriors in the 
stronghold of the White Beaver .? ” he inquired. 

“ They were like the leaves of the sycamore in num- 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 193 

ber,” responded Joe, dropping into the natural Indian 
habit of exaggeration ; “ and yet more were coming 
to join them. How can Black Hawk hope to stand 
against so great a following ? ” 

“ And my brother, the black-coat by the Great Water, 
what am I to hope for from him } ” queried the chief. 
“Will the war chiefs and braves of the Six Nations come 
to our help now, or was it only a hope for the future ? ” 

If the bubble was to be pricked, now was the time 
to burst it. 

“Chief,” said Joe Harvey, soberly, “it is all but a 
dream, a hope of the good missionary. Mr. Williams 
sent to you in friendship, hoping that the great chief 
of the Sacs would stretch out the hand of brotherhood 
for a union of the tribes of the East and the West in 
a great peaceful nation; but not for war. Black Hawk 
— not for war.” 

“ And he has no warriors with him ? ” demanded the 
disappointed leader. 

“ Let my brother, the Oneida, answer. He has been 
at Green Bay. I have not,” Joe replied. And Daniel 
Bread was summoned. 

“Daniel,” said Joe, “the chief asks how many war- 
riors Mr. Williams has with him at Green Bay. Let 
him hear the truth.” 

“ Besides Cornelius Bear, the Mohawk, and me, the 


o 


194 the godson of lafAyettE. 

Oneida,” Daniel Bread replied, “ my brother Williams, 
the Mohawk missionary, has but a handful, O Black 
Hawk. And few of these are warriors. We have 
learned the ways of peace, and would join our brothers 
of the West in warfare only against wrong and error, 
not for gain in land or power.” 

“Bah, it is a woman ! ” cried the Prophet, who had 
joined the conference. “ Let the Hawk fix his talons in 
the coward Oneida and drag him from the camp of 
warriors.” 

“ I am no woman ; I am a man,” said Daniel Bread, 
proudly. “ I am no coward Oneida. I am a warrior of 
Christ, who died like a warrior to save men of every 
color and of every tribe. It is you. White Cloud, you, 
the one-eyed, you the false Prophet, who are coward 
and liar. By your words I was excited; I thought I 
saw a new future for the redman of this land ; and, led 
away, I took your war wampum and dishonored my Mas- 
ter and my Lord. I would have dragged this boy, my 
white brother, into disgrace and death ; I am sorry. 
I see the light. There is no future for the redman of 
this land but in peace and Christian love. See ! the 
tide of white life is rolling in a flood from the East 
even to the West. Who can withstand it .? Not you. 
Prophet, with your lying tales of Indian power and 
union along the Great River. Not you. Black Hawk, 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 


195 


with your dreams of war and conquest; not even my 
brother Williams, the missionary, with his visions of 
red brotherhood and one great Indian nation. There 
is no lasting brotherhood in us until we accept Christ 
as our Chief ; there is even warring and lack of faith 
between the Mohawk and the Oneida, between the Sac 
and the Pottawatomie. Chief, Williams has no follow- 
ing at Green Bay ; he has no warriors ; he can give you 
no assistance. Behold, I speak the truth. Do with 
me as you will.” 

Before the words of the devout Oneida the haughty 
head of Black Hawk drooped yet lower in disappoint- 
ment. But when the enraged Prophet would have 
returned the visitor’s bold words with taunt and insult, 
the chieftain of the Sacs interfered. 

“ The peace man of the Oneidas speaks but the truth, 
O Prophet,” he said. “ What can we, a handful of 
Sacs, with but a few allies upon whom we can rely, 
hope to do against the hosts who follow the White 
Beaver ? My mind has changed. I will go back with 
my people across the Great River, should the Great 
Father again bid me do so ; I will leave the white men 
in peace and possession of the lands they have stolen 
from my tribe. Who can withstand the rush of the 
great wave from the East ? Come, bid my young men 
prepare the dog feast and send back the Pottawatomies 


196 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

to their homes. Then will I await here the summons 
of the White Beaver.” 

The Prophet would have protested against thus yield- 
ing without a struggle. But even before he could 
speak, a runner burst in upon the chiefs. 

“ The white men are upon you, Black Hawk ! ” he 
cried. “ Our scouts have seen their warriors going 
into camp an hour’s run down the river. Does the 
chief bid us fight.'*” 

“ It is the White Beaver come for a parley,” said 
Black Hawk. “ Bid the scouts keep to cover ; call 
the braves back. I will go to meet him.” 

“ Who would trust a white man ? ” broke out the 
Prophet. “ Not Black Hawk who saw Tecumseh die 
and succeeded to his dream of leadership ! Not Black 
Hawk whose corn-fields have been trampled and whose 
offers of peace have been spit upon by these white rob- 
bers of our father’s home land. Trust not, O chief ! ” 

“ It shall not be said that Black Hawk destroyed 
his people for his own revenges,” replied the chief, 
nobly. “ I will see the White Beaver. I will bid him 
meet me in council. But you are right. Prophet, I 
will not go myself. Let three of our young men 
bear the white flag that speaks of peaceful council. 
Let five braves follow the flagmen, five minutes 
behind, and watch the meeting with the white men. 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 1 97 

But let all others stay here in camp and await the 
White Beaver’s reply. Go you, little brother, with 
the five scouts, that you may conduct the White 
Beaver, in token of your friendliness, here to meet 
us in council.” 

Nothing loath to again be among his own kind, and 
especially to report to General Atkinson the changed 
condition of Black Hawk, Joe Harvey sprang upon 
his pony and with the five watchers rode forward a 
half mile in the rear of the three bearers of the flag 
of truce. 

Out from a grove, three miles from Black Hawk’s 
position, Joe saw a mob of soldiers, in most unsoldierly 
disorder, gallop to meet the truce bearers. Then, to 
his horror, he saw the bearers of the flag of truce 
surrounded, dragged from their horses, and hustled 
with shouts and jeers into the camp of the American 
advance, while shots and yells told, too truthfully, of 
that great stain on the honor of the American soldier 
— the murder of Black Hawk’s envoys. 

“ Shame ! shame ! ” he cried aloud in unrestrained 
but useless protest. Then from the white mob twenty 
rangers came in a mad gallop, straight upon the 
scouts they had seen watching them from a knoll. 

“ Spies ! spies ! Injun spies ! ” came their cry. 
“ Shoot ’em down, the red dogs ! ” 


198 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

They emptied their guns into the little group, and 
two of the Indians fell dead. The others, bearing 
Joe with them, urged their ponies on with cries and 
shouting, and spent and in terror galloped back to 
the camp where Black Hawk stood awaiting their 
report. 

The old chief had prepared another flag of truce, 
under the safety of which he thought to go forward 
to meet Atkinson. 

“ Fly, chief ! fly. Black Hawk ! ” the remnant of the 
scouts cried in alarm, as they dashed upon him. 
“ The white butchers are here. See ! they have killed 
your bearers of the white flag. They have slain two 
of us who watched them. They would have killed us 
all.” 

The brown, calm face of the old chief grew black 
with rage at the perfidy of the white man. With 
one wrathful grip he tore the flag of truce in shreds 
and trampled it beneath his feet. 

“Ho! brothers; revenge, revenge!” he shouted. 
“The white man is a liar and a murderer. There is 
no truth in him. Out, out, and meet them ! Revenge 
for our brothers and death to the white man ! No 
mercy to butchers and liars ! ” 

A yell of rage and defiance rose from the red 
warriors in reply to the call of their chief. Sixty or 


DANIEL BREAD TAKES A STAND. 


199 


more of them sprang into saddle and dashed from 
the grove, while the Prophet, even as he mounted, 
shouted, “ Down with the white spy ! ” and flung his 
hatchet with deadly intent at Joe Harvey, whom he 
saw on the fringe of excited warriors. 

But Joe, thanks more to good luck than to celerity, 
safely dodged the hatchet, and thinking that even a 
faithless white man was, just then, a better protection 
for a white boy than a hundred enraged and right- 
eously indignant Indians, wheeled his pony about, and 
striking his spurs deep galloped for dear life out into 
the open to meet the white soldiers who, three hundred 
strong, were rushing, pell mell and in an undisciplined, 
uncaptained mob, to hurl themselves upon the camp of 
Black Hawk. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


HE reckless, unreasoning, ill disciplined mob of 



A white militiamen, many of them half-drunk with 
the liquor they had smuggled into camp, came dashing 
on, and, as they spied Joe galloping alone to meet them, 
they would have shot him down, as they had his Indian 
comrades. 

But the boy flung his hands above his head and 
shouted, — 

“ Don’t shoot ! don’t shoot, boys ! I’m escaping ! ” 

“ So he is ! He’s a white boy ! Let him in ! ” came 
the cry, and opening their mass they received the fugi- 
tive among them. 

** Where’s General Atkinson ” he demanded. “ Let 
me see General Atkinson.” 

“Atkinson ! What do you mean, boy.?” they replied. 
“ He’s miles away. We’re Stillman’s advance, and 
we’re bound to git in a shot at these redskins and wipe 
’em out before the general can git at ’em. Come 
along ! See how we’ll do it ! ” 


200 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


201 


But Joe pulled away from the reckless mob. 

“ No, you don’t ! I’ve had enough of this thing,” he 
said ; and then he added the warning, “ you’d better go 
slow and watch out for the Hawk, boys ; he’s mad as a 
hatter.” 

“ ’S that so ? ” came the careless response. “ How 
many Injuns’s he got with him ? ” 

“ Oh, as many as a hundred, I guess,” Joe replied. 

“ Only a hundred ! Why, that won’t give us one 
apiece,” came the contemptuous response. “ Go for 
’em, boys. Down with the redskins ! ” 

The lines were near now ; for Black Hawk, enraged 
though he was, was, first of all, a general. As the 
Americans came galloping madly on, the chief drew his 
sixty warriors behind a mask of low bushes. 

“ Ho ! warriors of the Oh-sau-ke-uck,” he said with 
cautious but with stern resolve ; “ let us stand firm. 
Wait till you hear my order. Then, let all who are 
willing to die to avenge our brothers fling themselves 
upon those murderers.” 

The unsoldierly white men slowed up their reckless 
rush when, above the fringe of prairie brush, they saw 
the stern array of the Sacs. It did not look as if this 
was to be so much of a picnic affair as they had deemed 
it. That belated show of caution was fatal ; for, as they 
hesitated, shrill, high, and blood-curdling sounded the 


202 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


fearful war-whoop given by Black Hawk himself, and 
over and through the mask of bushes burst with yell 
and defiance the furious Indian charge. 

Crack ! crack ! the guns of the redskins rang out ; 
higher and louder swelled the war-whoop ; and the 
white mob, startled, dazed, terrified, without even firing 
a gun in reply, broke, turned, and fled before the 
Indian onrush, three hundred routed by sixty ! They 
fell before the fire of the Indian guns, a dozen dead 
in all ; then, losing all control, deaf to the commands 
of their officers, who tried to rally and turn them, 
they fled in hopeless rout and panic, on through their 
camp, on through creek, morass, and gully, never halt- 
ing until they reached Dixon’s station, twenty miles 
away, while fear and panic kept others of them still 
running until they rode their spent and broken horses 
even to their own firesides, miles and miles beyond 
danger, there to terrify the startled country-side with 
the terrible tidings that Atkinson’s army had been 
slaughtered to a man, and that Black Hawk with 
two thousand scalping redskins was close behind them, 
while all northern Illinois lay at his mercy. It was as 
pitiful, as unnecessary, and as utter a rout as darkens 
the pages of American pluck and valor. Stillman’s 
defeat is to this day a debated and scarcely settled 
phase of Western border story. 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


203 


Joe Harvey, borne down by the panic, was fairly 
carried into Dixon’s station. There Whitehead’s ad- 
vance of Atkinson’s force of mounted volunteers — 
fourteen hundred men in all — were in camp, and 
stopped the mad tide of retreat, save those who, still 
too terrified to hear reason, refused to obey the com- 
mand to halt and kept on running, even to their 
homes. 

But Joe stopped, and almost the first officer he 
recognized was Colonel Zachary Taylor of the regu- 
lars, fuming and fretting over the cowardice of the 
defeated volunteers. 

“Hullo!” he cried, recognizing Joe. “Here’s our 
envoy. Were you in the fuss, too ? Tell me, how 
many hundred thousand warriors has Black Hawk 
with him, anyway ? ” 

In spite of himself, Joe Harvey could not help 
laughing. The colonel was so beside himself with 
surprise, rage, and contempt that he could scarcely 
sputter out his inquiry. 

“ He has less than a hundred men with him, colo- 
nel,” he replied. “I don’t believe fifty warriors fol- 
lowed his charge and put our brave army to flight.” 

“Including you, sir, I see,” said the colonel. “You 
ran with the rest of the fools.” 

“I just had to, sir,” answered Joe. “They had 


204 


The godson of lafayette. 


me mixed up with ’em, and I had to run. And Black 
Hawk was dreadfully mad. But I don’t blame him.” 

“Give me the truth of it,” said Colonel Taylor. 
“ What started it all ? ” 

Thereupon Joe told the story as he knew it, and 
Taylor was yet more angry. 

“The fools! the drunken, cowardly fools! ” he cried. 
“That comes of letting volunteers go in ahead. That’s 
what you call independent battalions. Too mighty inde- 
pendent, I say ! They ought to be all court-martialled. 
Where’s Anderson .? Orderly, find the inspector-gen- 
eral, and tell him to report here at once. I’ll help 
him inspect, and if somebody don’t suffer for this, my 
name’s not Zachary Taylor.” 

Out of the hubbub and confusion Lieutenant Ander- 
son appeared. Even as he saluted the colonel he gave 
Joe a kindly smile of recognition. 

“A bad break, colonel,” the lieutenant declared. 
“ It’s one of those things not to be accounted for 
save in over-enthusiasm, over-excitement, and — ” 

“Over-stimulation, I reckon,” growled the disgusted 
colonel. “Couldn’t you keep the corn-juice away 
from the fools ? What’s the matter with the provost- 
marshal ? ” 

“ The general’s orders were definite enough, colonel,” 
the inspector explained; “but bordermen are reckless. 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


205 


you know, and our volunteers seem especially careless 
of discipline. Most of ’em think they’re off on a lark 
and look on this war as a regular picnic frolic. The 
whiskey was smuggled in and somehow they got too 
much of it. I’ve not much faith myself in volunteers, 
except as emergency men ; the regular service is what 
we must depend on, as you have often said, colonel ; 
but I don’t think we should be too hard on Stillman’s 
men. They are brave enough ; but even brave men 
have been known to go to pieces when a panic starts 
them.” 

“May I speak, colonel,” said Joe; “because I was in 
it all, you know .? ” 

The colonel nodded. 

“ Go on ; what’s your report, sir ? ” he said. 

“I did as you told me,” Joe replied. “But Daniel 
Bread, the Oneida, did more. He showed Black Hawk 
how useless it was to stand against your power. We 
worked with him so that, in spite of that firebrand, the 
Prophet, Black Hawk began to see his weakness and 
said he was ready to go back across the Mississippi if 
General Atkinson told him to. When we saw Stillman’s 
men in camp. Black Hawk thought they were General 
Atkinson’s advance, and sent a flag of truce out to tell 
him he was ready to talk. You know how that peace 
mission was received, colonel,” the boy added sadly. 


206 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“ I never felt so disgusted and ashamed over anything 
in all my life. It was horrible.” 

“ Right you are, son,” said “ Old Rough and Ready,” 
as his comrades of Buena Vista loved, later, to call 
him. “ It was inexcusable, and I’ll find out who’s to 
blame, somehow. But I’m glad to know that you saw 
your duty, as became your blood and training, and did 
it. The republic before all else, my boy ! even if some 
of its sons are scareheads and runaways.” 

Lieutenant Anderson stretched out both hands and 
shook those of Joe Harvey warmly. 

“ What did I tell you, colonel } ” he said. “ I knew he 
could be depended upon.” 

“ But it was the Oneida who took the stand that 
almost fixed things up,” protested Joe. “I only helped 
a little.” 

“ Thank Heaven, you didn’t hinder as that mob did ! ” 
growled Colonel Taylor, pointing at the panting fugi- 
tives, whose tales of the rout and how they tried to stop 
it grew bigger with each new telling. “You’re a credit 
to your name, son, and I wish we had a thousand more 
like you.” 

But Joe Harvey was not altogether satisfied with him- 
self. He had not been entirely true, he felt, to the inter- 
ests of his patron Eleazer Williams, he had permitted 
Daniel Bread to do more than he had dared attempt 


How JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


207 


in the camp of Black Hawk, and here were his friends 
in the army giving him more credit than he believed he 
deserved. But, boy-like, he did not permit his con- 
science to become too tyrannical. He only said, — 

“ Well, I did the best I could, anyhow ; I got off scot 
free, and I ought to be thankful for that.” 

When, however, next day, while Whiteside’s men were 
performing the sad duty of burying the dead and car- 
ing for the wounded on the field of Stillman’s defeat, — 
beside the little creek which, grimly and significantly 
enough, has ever since borne the name of Stillman’s 
Run, — Daniel Bread came into camp with Shaubena’s 
friendly Pottawatomies, Joe felt that the Oneida was, 
indeed, the hero of the day. 

“ It was a black day for the Hawk, my brother, 
when his braves turned backward into flight the feet 
of the white soldiers,” Daniel Bread declared. “ It 
was well nigh a black day for me, too. For when I 
saw from the council grove the dash of Black Hawk 
and his braves, when I saw the white men turn and 
flee without making a stand for fight, when I remem- 
bered the shame and faithlessness of the white men 
toward the Hawk’s flag of truce, once more the old 
spirit of war burned in my heart, and I had to repeat 
the words of the Good Book taught me by the mission- 
aries for just such times of temptation, — ‘Beware, lest 


208 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, 
fall from steadfastness.’ I had to say it over again 
and again to hold myself from war-whoop and ride. 
And when the warriors came back from chasing the 
white men and gathered up the rich store of booty 
that was in the captured camp of the white soldiers, 
even I, hoping for peace, could not but share some 
of Black Hawk’s words of triumph. 

“ ‘ Ho ! sons of Oh-sau-ke-uck,’ he said. ‘ Why should 
we longer fear.^ You see how a handful of brave 
Sacs can scatter into flight a host of the white sol- 
diers. You are great in war, O brothers,’ he said; 
‘none can stand against you. The white man would 
have war ; he shall have it, and woe to all his tribe, — 
his old men and his women, his children and his 
lodges, even he himself who boasts so of his strength, 
and yet flies to his hole like a gopher when he looks 
upon the face of the Sac in battle.’ The chief had, 
indeed, won a great victory, and who could blame him 
for glorying in it.” 

“That’s true,” said Joe. “But how did you come 
to leave them, Daniel.?” 

“When the braves came back from the chase of 
the white soldiers, and the captured camp had been 
stripped,” Daniel Bread replied, “ he sent his scouts 
out to watch the White Beaver’s war band, and while 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


209 


he was sending away his women and children farther 
up into the wilderness in the old Sac home land, I 
slipped away, and, meeting with the friendly Potta- 
watomies of Shaubena’s band, who are against this 
war with the whites and are riding through the settle- 
ments, to warn the white people, I came here, seeking 
you at the White Beaver’s camp. And what will my 
brother do now ? Shall we return to our brother 
Williams at Green Bay ” 

“ I vow I don’t know what to do, Daniel,” replied 
puzzled Joe. “With Black Hawk on the war-path 
and all the land aroused and in a furious scare, I 
don’t know as we could get through alive. I’m sure 
you couldn’t. You’re an Indian, you see.” 

“ But I still have the paper General Cass gave 
me,” explained the Oneida. “He told me it would 
keep me out of harm anywhere in this Western 
country.” 

“ Oh, ho ! then you saw Governor Cass, too, did you, 
eh.^” queried Joe. “Where.?” 

“At Detroit, my brother.” 

“And did he — did he say anything against Mr. 
Williams .? ” 

“ He bade me beware of him,” the Oneida admitted. 
“ He told me he was without authority or following, 
and that he did not believe he was right in his head 


210 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


or his heart. But my brother Williams has been true 
to me, and I will be true to him.” 

Even to supporting him in his scheme of an 
Indian empire here in the West, and hostile to the 
United States, Daniel.?” persisted Joe. 

And why should I not, my brother .? ” replied the 
Oneida. “Who has been friend and brother to me — 
El-ezar Williams or the Great Father at Washington ? 
It is my brother Williams who has led my people 
from darkness and paganism, given them the Bible, 
and promised them the schools and civilization of the 
white men. Shall he not, too, give us greater power 
and knowledge if we support him .? His plan is great ; 
under him the Six Nations may again be leaders of 
our race, and here, in the wide lands of the West, be- 
side the Great River and even to the distant mountains, 
shall the name and power of the son of Konante-wan- 
teta, the wise woman of the Mohawks, be great. Te- 
cumseh is dead. Red Jacket is dead. Black Hawk will 
die in his useless war against the whites. I know it. 
Who then can join the Indians of this land.? None 
but a Christian, loving peace ; none but a white leader, 
knowing how to govern. He will put down all tribal 
jealousies and feuds; he, and he alone, can make his 
great dream come true — my brother Williams, whose 
dream is only of a vast but peaceful league of the 
redmen of America.” 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


2II 


“You’re true blue, for certain, Daniel,” exclaimed 
Joe. “I wish I could feel as sure as you do. But, 
even if I did, there would still be the fear that, in 
supporting him, I am not loyal to the republic. I’m 
bound to be that above all. But that does not help 
us out of this affair. I think it is my duty to be of 
service to the republic in this struggle with Black 
Hawk; but you, Daniel, whose first duty is to Mr. 
Williams, had better join him if you can, and tell him 
of the uselessness of making any union with Black 
Hawk. I will stay with the army.” 

“And the money, my brother; that which keeps us 
both in these days,” suggested the practical Oneida, 
“is it ours to do with as we will, or is it from our 
brother Williams .? ” 

“Great Scott! that’s so,” declared Joe, with another 
great twinge of conscience, as the force of the situa- 
tion came thus directly home to him. “I forgot all 
about that. Then it’s yours, Daniel. Here, I’ll not 
keep a cent of it. I’ll fight this thing out with empty 
hands — or — no — I’ll ask the lieutenant what I ought 
to do.” 

“Let not my little brother be foolish,” said the 
Oneida. “ He’s the chief of this expedition. It is to 
Williams, our chief, that he must make answer, and 
not to these men of war, who would butcher or drive 


212 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


away from their corn-fields the redmen who are our 
brothers. Be wise ; but, more than that, be true, my 
brother. Your duty is to him who sent you here. 
Let us rather follow behind the soldiers as they go 
on the trail of the Hawk, and when there is safety 
in the endeavor then let us break away for Green 
Bay and the great lake.” 

In Joe Harvey’s uncertain and unsettled state of 
mind this advice seemed good, and the young “am- 
bassador,” who was already beginning to lose faith in 
his ability as a “diplomat,” concluded to let things 
drift awhile. But in troubled waters things will not 
drift quietly, and the beginning of the Black Hawk 
War was certainly “troubled waters” for the settlers 
of Wisconsin and Illinois. 

Stillman’s disgraceful and entirely unnecessary de- 
feat, self-invited and self-imposed, put all that north- 
ern border into a state of terror, mistrust, and fear. 
The authorities did all that they could do to allay 
the excitement. The governor of Illinois called for a 
fresh enlistment of two thousand volunteers; the 
national government ordered General Winfield Scott 
and a thousand regulars to proceed at once to the 
seat of war ; while General Atkinson, saving from the 
terrified militia (who had the “Black Hawk scare” so 
badly that they simply wouldn’t stay to fight) three 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


213 


or four hundred mounted rangers, remained with his 
little force of regulars and rangers, six hundred men 
in all, to protect the threatened Illinois border. 

Meantime, Black Hawk’s defeat of Stillman’s corps 
had so raised him in Indian estimation that certain 
war-like contingents of Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies 
swelled his strength to a force equal to that of Gen- 
eral Atkinson. From his new stronghold on Lake 
Koshkonong, in what is now Jefferson -County, Wis- 
consin, he swooped down upon the scattered settle- 
ments of northern Illinois, and swept them with 
massacre and panic, until the little forts were full of 
fugitives, and men, women, and children fell victims 
to the fury of partisan war and foray. 

Horrified at the storm those reckless violators of 
the flag of truce had raised, Joe felt that, envoy or 
not, his duty lay in protection and action. He sought 
out Lieutenant Anderson and asked him if there 
was not some way in which he could make himself 
useful. 

“ I’m not much of a fighter, lieutenant,” he said, 
with a realizing sense of his unfitness as a war chief 
and general commanding (that had been his dream in 
Eleazer Williams’s “ kingdom,” you know), “ but I want 
to do something. Can’t I help ? ” 

“You see what the red wampum has done, Joe,” 


214 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


said the lieutenant ; “ think what might have happened 
had you carried it through to that arch plotter, Will- 
iams. Help us } Why, yes, I believe you can. Those 
militiamen are not to be depended upon, just yet. 
With their homes in fancied danger, I don’t know 
as I really wonder at their desire to get away from 
here ; but I wish they had more real patriotism among 
them. The general has sent to the governor an im- 
perative demand for reenforcements. He is thinking 
of sending a swift rider to the rendezvous at Beards- 
town, urging the battalions and spy companies there 
to march at once to his relief. Why can’t you bear 
this message.? You’re a good rider and a swift one. 
Will you ride back and hurry them up .? ” 

“ Gladly, lieutenant, if you think I can find the 
way,” Joe replied unhesitatingly. 

“ It’s a straight road,” the lieutenant replied. “ It’s 
the Fort Clark trail to Peoria Lake. You’ll find some 
regiments in camp there. Get hold of the first ones 
you can and send ’em on. Take the Oneida with you. 
He’s hardly safe here, just now. Get ready; I’ll have 
your orders from the general prepared at once.” 

The general’s “ orders ” were speedily in hand, and 
Joe was in the saddle riding fast to the southward, 
with Daniel Bread, much against his will, as a travel- 
ling companion ; for the Oneida still felt that his duty 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


215 


lay at Green Bay to the northeast, in the company of 
his “chief,” Eleazer Williams. 

They rode on through Dixon’s and “Dad Joe’s” 
and Thomas’s Farm, all stations filled with fugitives 
and dissatisfied militiamen, and striking into Kellogg’s 
trail beside the Illinois, pressed on toward Fort Clark 
on the shores of Lake Peoria. 

Everywhere there was panic and fright; terrified 
settlers, scudding for cover in the nearest fort, pressed 
Joe for the latest tidings of that “pesky murdering 
varmint,” Black Hawk, and then refused to be com- 
forted by his reassuring news. They looked with 
suspicion and dread upon his Oneida companion, even 
in his “white man’s clothes,” and suspected him to be 
an enemy in disguise; altogether Joe’s mission to the 
southward was neither a safe nor a pleasant one. 

Joe was aware of Daniel Bread’s uneasiness and his 
indisposition to get farther and farther away from his 
real “ field of duty ” ; the boy tried to argue the 
Oneida out of his unsatisfactory condition as they 
galloped on, but the Oneida refused to be comforted. 

“Why, Daniel,” Joe said, as the Indian grumbled 
and objected, “.you’ve got General Cass’s safe conduct. 
That’s a thousand times better and safer than one 
from Eleazer Williams. By the way, Daniel,” he 
added, seeking to turn his companion’s mind into other 


2i6 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


channels, “did he — Mr. Williams, I mean — ever say 
anything to you about being a greater man than folks 
think he is? Did he ever hint to you that he was a 
— the son of a great chief over the water, in France ? 
Did he ever say to you that he was a prince, or a 
king, if he had his rights ? ” 

“ How could he be ? ” queried the Oneida. “ Is he 
not of the blood of the Six Nations.^ Was not his 
mother the wise woman of the Mohawks ? And is 
not his father a chief of the St. Regis tribe, in 
Caughnawaga He cannot be the son of a great 
French chief across the Great Salt Water. Why should 
he say so? He has told me he will yet be prince 
and king of a great nation. But is not that the league 
of redmen here, in this troubled and war-swept land 
of trails and forests, which only such as he can make 
the land of peace and plenty ? How can he be any- 
thing else.? Surely, my young brother does not yet 
know his chief.” 

“Well, perhaps I don’t, Daniel,” Joe replied. “But 
as surely as we are riding together, Mr. Williams told 
me that he — hullo! what’s the trouble yonder.?” 

The “trouble yonder” was of Joe’s own causing. 
For, as they rode swiftly on, hoping to reach the fort 
by night, Joe Harvey had pressed a trifle ahead, and 
the Oneida, with his hat off, and his long, black hair 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


217 


Streaming in the wind, gave to one who did not know 
him the appearance of a hard-riding Indian in full 
pursuit of an escaping white boy. 

This, at least, was what it appeared to be to the 
family of a settler with a bad attack of “ Injun scare,” 
struggling to get his wife and children across a little 
“ run ” and out of harm’s way. 

Fording the swift-running creek, the father and 
mother and the eldest daughter had succeeded in 
getting most of the children across. One still re- 
mained upon what they believed to be the danger 
side, and as the galloping riders — swelled now in 
the terrified imaginings of the fleeing settlers to the 
advance of Black Hawk himself and his scalping, 
torturing band — came nearer and nearer to the creek, 
the frightened father turned to plunge in once again 
to rescue his remaining child. 

But his equally terrified wife hauled him out of 
the stream. 

“ It’s you or Susan,” she cried. “ If the Injuns 
get you, you’re a dead man. We can’t spare you, 
dear. We’re all across but Susan. Let her stay. 
She’s such a little thing the Injuns won’t hurt her, 
and we can spare her better ’n we can spare you.” 

Then, with a last despairing good-by to poor little 
Susan, crying in terror upon the farther side of the 


2I8 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


run, the fleeing family “made tracks” across the 
prairie, speeding, as they believed, for dear life, 
while little six-year-old Susan was left “as a sop” 
to the merciless savages. 

The supposed savages reached the bank of the 
stream, and shouted and waved frantically to the 
panic-stricken fugitives, who, of course, mistook their 
shouts and hand waving for that of a summons to 
come back and be scalped. 

“Well!” cried Joe, indignantly, hoarse with shout- 
ing and sore from his exertions to call the fugitives 
back, “ if that isn’t a mean, low-down trick ! What 
do they take us for.? Injuns.? See here, little girl,” 
he added reassuringly, as he sprang from his saddle, 
and approached the child, “ don’t you be frightened. 
We won’t hurt you. Where’s mamma gone.?” 

The child retreated in fear, shrieking at the top 
of her voice; while Joe, distressed and sympathizing, 
ran to catch her. 

“ I wouldn’t hurt you. See, I’m a white boy,” he 
said. “ I like little girls. Come, come to me. We’re 
not Injuns — or I’m not,” he added, truthful even in 
this atmosphere of excitement. 

“ I tell you what, Daniel,” he said ; “ you ride on 
to Fort Clark, or to the first camp you come to, and 
I’ll follow on with the little girl as soon as I can 



ii { 


SEE HERE, LITTLE GIRL 


DON’T YOU BE FRIGHTENED!’” 










HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


219 


calm her down. Don’t you see, she’s frightened. 
She thinks you’re one of Black Hawk’s Injuns. You 
hurry on, and wait for me in camp.” 

The Oneida appreciated the situation, — he even saw 
the humor of it, — and turning his pony’s head rode 
on down the trail. Then Joe, with outstretched hands 
and a reassuring smile upon his friendly face, again 
tried to soothe and “ hearten up ” the deserted little 
one. 

Joe Harvey’s smile was not one to be long resisted. 
The child stopped her crying, looked upon Joe’s honest 
face with open eyes, in which faith soon took the 
place of fear, and at last, coming to him confidently, 
placed her little hand in the boy’s big one. 

“ That’s good, that’s good ! ” said the delighted boy. 
“Now we’re friends, ain’t we You come with me. 
I’ll give you a ride on the pony, and then we’ll find 
mamma.” 

With perfect faith now, the child nestled in Joe’s 
protecting arms as he lifted her to the pony’s back. 
But when he looked across the run no sign of the 
settler’s flying family could he see. 

“Well, that’s pleasant!” he said. “I don’t know 
where to catch them. I guess we’ll have to carry 
you to the fort, sissy, and mamma’ll find you there.” 

He sprang to the saddle, and, holding the child 


220 


THE CODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


before him, rode on down the trail. But he could not 
conveniently gallop with his burden. So he rode along 
at a gentle pace, and, losing time in catching up with 
the Oneida, had not yet overtaken him when he saw 
in advance the white tents of the camp of the volun- 
teers. 

‘‘I guess rd better ride there before going to the 
fort,’’ he decided. “ Daniel is probably waiting for 
me there.” 

The camp seemed to be in an uproar as he 
approached it. He could see nothing of Daniel 
Bread, but as he came nearer he spied and heard 
a yelling, struggling mob, with guns and arms bran- 
dished in air, gathered about a crouching, pleading, 
expostulating figure. It was Daniel Bread, the Oneida, 
in the hands of a mob of unruly volunteers, evidently 
bent on his destruction. 

“Here!” shouted Joe. “Let him alone. He’s 
all right I ” 

But the crowd did not hear him ; they were too much 
interested in their vengeance, and, impeded as he was 
by the child on his saddle, Joe could not reach his 
friend. 

Suddenly he saw a tall, lanky, long-armed man — 
evidently an officer — spring from a tent and leap 
into the midst of the mob. 


HOW JOE RODE INTO CAMP. 


221 


The frontiersman’s long arms scattered and tumbled 
the men right and left. 

“ Here ! stand back, men ! Aren’t you ’shamed of 
yourselves, piling like that on one poor redskin.? 
What’s the man done.? You wouldn’t kill an unarmed 
man, would you .? ” 

The Oneida crouched at his defender’s feet, and 
the long-legged officer laid one hand in protection 
upon the Indian’s head. 

“ Yah ! he’s a spy, an Injun spy ! ” came the shout 
from the persecutors. “ Let’s have him. We’ll fix 
him. We ain’t afraid, even if you be, cap’n. Don’t 
be a coward ! ” 

The ungainly officer took his hand from the Oneida’s 
head, and looked at the hostile circle of vengeance 
seekers. 

“Coward!” he cried. “Who says I’m a coward.?” 

And he began to roll up his sleeves, displaying a 
pair of brawny arms that his men evidently respected. 

“Daniel’s all right,” Joe assured himself. “I wonder 
who the long fellow is.” 

He halted his pony well outside of the melee, and 
holding tightly to his “foundling,” awaited develop- 
ments. 

“Here, cap’n, that ain’t fair!” came the cry from 
the crowd as it backed away from too close proximity 


222 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


to those terrible arms. “You’re bigger ’n we be — 
and heavier. You don’t give us a show.” 

The captain smiled cheerfully as he towered above 
his redskinned protege. 

“Show, eh.? I’ll give you all the show you want; 
more ’n you’ll give this Injun, I reckon,” he said. “ I’ll 
tell you what I’ll do, boys, I’ll fight you all, one down 
and one a-comin’, just as you can get at me. Take 
it out of me if you can; but just hear what I’m tellin’ 
you — you sha’n’t touch this Injun. When a man 
comes to me for help — white man, Injun, or nigger 
— he’s goin’ to get it, if I have to lick all Sangamon 
County.” 

“ Good for him ! ” cried Joe, enthusiastically, as he 
watched the long-limbed, brawny frontiersman facing 
the mob and ready to make his challenge good. 
“ Say,” added the boy, touching the shoulder of the 
soldier nearest him, “ who’s your cap’n .? I shouldn’t 
want to tackle him. Who is he .? ” 

“ Him .? The cap’n .? ” repeated the man, looking 
around and then up into Joe’s inquiring face. “ No, 
bub, I reckon you wouldn’t want to tackle him ; that’s 
Lincoln from New Salem — Cap’n Abe Lincoln of 
the Sangamon company.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 

E vidently the mob of Indian-badgering soldiers 
were of the opinion of both Joe Harvey and their 
comrade who told the captain’s name. They had no 
desire to try a wrestle with long-armed Captain Abra- 
ham Lincoln when he really meant business. 

They fell back grumbling, and Captain Lincoln 
lifted the Oneida to his feet. 

“ You’re all right, Injun,” said the captain. “ I 
hate to see a fellow abused, and I won’t stand it. But 
what are you doing here ? This isn’t a very healthy 
spot for your color.” 

The Oneida thrust into the captain’s hands the 
safe conduct from General Cass. 

“ From Governor Cass, eh ? Why didn’t you say 
so ? ” demanded his protector. “ That’s all right. 
But what d’ye want. Got any friends here.?” 

Ere the Oneida could reply, Joe Harvey pushed his 
way through the crowd. 

“He’s all right, Cap’n Lincoln,” said Joe. “He 


223 


224 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


came with me. We’re carrying orders from Genera] 
Atkinson on the Kishwaukee.” 

Captain Lincoln looked shrewdly and closely into 
the boy’s face. Then a broad smile overspread his 
homely countenance. 

“’S that so.?” he said. Then he pointed at the 
chubby child on Joe’s saddle. “Is that your order.?” 
he queried. 

Joe smiled back in return. 

“ No, cap’n,” he replied. “ That’s a find I picked 
up back here on the creek.” And then he told the 
story of the child’s desertion. 

“The ornery critters!” Lincoln exclaimed indig- 
nantly, “the unfeeling, selfish, low-down trash. That’s 
a nice kind of a dad and mam to have. Why, I’d ’a’ 
gone back and brought her across the run if you’d 
been forty-’leven Injuns in war-paint and tomahawks, 
which you weren’t,” he added. “ See what a thing 
fear is, bub. It’ll take the best and holiest feelings 
right out of a man’s heart, or a woman’s either, if 
they think their own skins are in danger. That’s 
what’s the matter with the boys here and your friend. 
They’ve volunteered to fight Injuns, and since Still- 
man’s massacre, hanged if they don’t think every 
Injun they see is a tribe on the war-path. I’m ’shamed 
of ye, boys.” 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 22$ 

“I’ve got to report to the general, sir,” said Joe; 
“but — what’ll I do with this child.?’’ 

“You give her to me for a spell,” said the captain. 
“I’ll look out for her till you come back. I’m mighty 
fond of little children.” 

Which is a good trait in any man; but then what- 
ever was helpless, hurt, lost, weak, defenceless, or 
persecuted appealed to Abraham Lincoln and received 
his sympathy, aid, and protection — from a wounded 
bird or a stray kitten to a lost child and a persecuted 
race. His heart was as large as his humanity. 

So Joe Harvey left his “foundling,” as he called 
the child, in Captain Lincoln’s care, and rode to the 
fort to make his report. The commander. General 
Hugh Brady, promised to attend to the business at 
once and forward reenforcements to Atkinson who 
had now crossed the Illinois line to meet Black 
Hawk. Then Joe, his mission discharged, sought the 
tent of Captain Lincoln. 

Worn out with her fear, her fatigue, and her hard 
ride to camp, “Joe’s foundling,” the little Susan, had 
fallen asleep, and Joe found the captain watching 
over the sleeping child, for whom he had made a 
comfortable bed on his own rough “shake-down.” 

The big, raw-boned frontiersman was watching the 
quiet, regular breathing of the sleeping child with 
Q 


226 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


tenderness and sympathy both apparent on his strong, 
though homely, face. 

He raised his finger in caution as Joe appeared at 
the entrance to the tent, and then tiptoed over to the 
boy. 

“ Helpless little mortals, children are, ain’t they, 
bub } ” he said. “ By the way, I oughtn’t to call you 
bub ; you’re not a boy, now, you’re a man, and you 
acted like one, picking up that child and toting it along 
with you. There’s my hand, son ; I’m proud of you. 
What’s your name, and where do you hail from ? ” 

Again the oft-repeated story as to name and line- 
age and godfather was retold for Captain Abraham 
Lincoln. 

“Good name and good forbears you’ve got, Joe,” 
said the captain. “You ought to be proud of that 
Lafayette in your name, and to know that the French- 
man put it there. I’m proud of the Revolutionary 
Lincoln in my name, too, though, to tell the truth, I 
don’t know how much, if any, of old General Lincoln’s 
blood runs in my veins. Fact is, Joe, my folks. I’m 
afraid, all came of undistinguished families — second 
families, you might say, and not first, though they did 
come from Virginia. But those old Revolutioners that 
you can, and I would like to, claim kin with were great 
old chaps. Well ! they’re all gone now, most of ’em. 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 22/ 

But weren’t they a forest of great oaks, son.? I tell 
you, what they did will live forever, even if they can’t. 
I wonder whether you or I, Joe, will do anything that’ll 
live .? ” 

The gaunt young backwoodsman looked musingly 
at his great hands as if wondering what they would 
carve out for him in the world. 

“What do you s’pose Bill Offutt — he’s the man I 
was clerkin’ with at New Salem when I ’listed for this 
Injun war — what d’ye s’pose Offutt says about me, 
Joe } He says he knows I’ll be President, some day — 
President of these U-nited States. How’s that, Joe! 
Abe Lincoln, chore boy, rail-splitter, flat-boat hand, a 
President I ” And again the awkward young militia- 
man looked at his hands and laughed. “ That Offutt’s 
crazy, I reckon.” 

“Well, cap’n,” said Joe, reassuringly, “it’s a free 
country; everybody’s got a chance, you know.” 

“That’s so, everybody has,” the captain admitted, 
“ man or boy. It all depends on the chance he gets — 
or makes, Joe, eh.? I reckon we can all of us make our 
chance, if we set out to. Fact is, the only way for a 
young man to rise, Joe, — you and me alike, — is to just 
improve himself every way he can. We don’t want to 
mope around and think anybody wants to hinder us. 
Some fellows who are up may try to keep us down ; 


228 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


but a young chap like you, Joe, with grit, can’t be 
kept down. If you keep right along on the trail you 
started out on, nobody can really injure you or keep you 
back for good. Don’t be afraid to speak out, I say. 
The time comes, I reckon, to all of us when we can’t 
be silent if we want to. We’ve just got to speak and 
either tell the truth or a lie, and I hate a lie.” 

So did Joe Harvey. But he wondered, as he listened 
to this tall Illinois captain, whether he — Joe Harvey — 
had started out on the right trail by casting in his lot 
with Eleazer Williams. He wondered whether that 
was the way to improve himself, and whether the time 
would come when he’d have to speak out and declare 
himself. 

“But how’s a boy going to know just what is the 
right trail, cap’n ? ” he queried. 

“By the blazing, Joe,” Lincoln replied. “A blind 
trail isn’t a safe one, and I reckon a bright boy like 
you has got horse sense enough to watch out for signs. 
I don’t mean by speaking up to be always watching out 
for a fight. Fighting is low down except for self-de- 
fence, or to protect the weak — same as I bluffed those 
boys of mine who were badgering that Injun friend of 
yours; same as you’d ’a’ done, Joe, rather than let any- 
body hurt this child you picked up. Fighting’s low 
down, I say. Quarrelling’s worse. No fellow that 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 229 

wants to make the most of himself has got any time to 
spare in quarrelling. You always want to keep a grip 
on your temper ; don’t lose that. If you have to fight, 
just see that you get the best of it. But it’s a heap bet- 
ter to give up the path to a dog than be bitten by him 
if you can steer around him. Killing the dog won’t 
cure the bite he might give you. I know what I’m 
talking about, son; I’ve tried it on the dog.” 

Joe was not altogether sure that he approved of 
Captain Lincoln’s advice. And yet, to save himself, 
he couldn’t help thinking of a dog’s bite and Eleazer 
Williams’s tempting of him as somehow the same things. 

“ Supposing that trail looks as though it were going 
to lead you to great things, cap’n,” he persisted. 
“ Supposing a man said you come with me and I’ll 
make you bigger than the President of the United 
States. Supposing he showed you a trail that led to a 
bigger chance than these United States.” 

“Look out for false guides, Joe,” said Captain Lin- 
coln, solemnly ; “ there’s a right way and a wrong way, 
and I reckon we’ve got to decide for ourselves. But 
don’t you be led out of the right trail by fairy stories ; 
know the truth, first, and then strike for it. That’s the 
thing that comes to all of us. I don’t know as I’ve 
always struck the right trail, Joe. With me the race 
of ambition hasn’t always been a winner. Sometimes,” 


230 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


he added soberly, “ I think my running has been a flat 
failure. But I don’t give up. There’s a fellow out in 
this Western country I’ve heard of, — a good Injun 
fighter and a great hunter, — Davy Crockett, they call 
him, whose advice to young fellows is, ‘ Be sure you’re 
right, then go ahead ! ’ That’s good talk. Get hold of 
the right. I’m trying to do that; for I tell you, Joe 
Harvey, that always is, and always will be, the issue 
in this big country of ours — the eternal struggle be- 
tween right and wrong. And ’tain’t the issue in this 
‘land of the free and home of the brave’ alone — it’s 
the big struggle all the world over and has been since 
time began. I reckon it will always be so ; for you see 
things won’t push ahead unless there’s some to stop 
’em — something to be mastered and overcome. But 
we’ve got to face it here more ’n other countries, be- 
cause freedom is what we’re after; and freedom is 
right, while tyranny is wrong ; love of country is right, 
while deserting is wrong.” 

“Would it be deserting it, cap’n,” queried Joe, thought- 
fully, “ if you went into a new country with a man who 
had a plan, and helped him make a new nation } ” 

“ Hm ! ” mused the captain, “ whereabouts ? ” 

“Why, right here in the West, across the Missis- 
sippi,” replied Joe, unguardedly. His halting decision 
made him think only of his own possibilities. 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 23 1 

“Here } here in America ? He can’t do it, Joe,” Lin- 
coln replied earnestly. “ Don’t you trust any such 
yarns. That’s the one thing I fear — folks trying to 
set up for themselves here, and bucking against the 
republic. That’s the danger point, I reckon. If 
danger ever threatens our free institutions, it must 
spring up among ourselves. It can’t come from abroad. 
Other nations won’t care to tackle us. If destruction 
does come to us, as it has to other nations, we, our- 
selves, must be its author and finisher. As a nation 
of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by sui- 
cide. Whose hand will strike that blow, and who 
will try to stop that hand } ” 

The child slumbered on in its improvised bed ; the 
boy sat silent and thoughtful ; the young man, with far- 
away-looking eyes, seemed lost in his reverie. Did he 
see with prophetic vision what part he was to play as 
the saviour of the republic when the suicidal blow was 
to fall ? None may say ; but the hand of fate was even 
then hewing out of the rough block of manhood, by 
the sharp axe of experience, chip by chip, and line by 
line, the great nature which was in time to be recog- 
nized by all the world as that of our one 

Kindly, earnest, brave, far-seeing man, 

Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, 

New birth of our new soil, the first American.” 


232 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


As for Joe Harvey, the words of Captain Abraham 
Lincoln fell like seed into uncertain soil. He felt that 
the captain might be right ; he felt that it was his duty 
as an American boy to be American, not a dreamer 
of princely dreams, but a doer of manly, brave, helpful, 
patriotic deeds; and surely Eleazer Williams’s scheme 
of a new empire to be made from what was, by right of 
possession, peopling, and expansion, American soil, — 
the property of the republic, — might be one of those 
very roads toward destruction. 

Joe did not see it, perhaps, as clearly as did Abraham 
Lincoln ; for the Westerner ever had his eyes toward 
the still greater West. But he had begun to feel that 
even Mr. Webster was at fault, because he was not in 
real touch with these great, new, far Western possibili- 
ties, and that the land that Eleazer Williams coveted 
for his Indian “subjects” was not to be, and would not 
be, unquestioningly left for its future to the care of 
savages who know no progress, nor of adventurers who 
look for a power that is un-American. Joseph Lafay- 
ette Harvey, you see, was already beginning to see the 
greater light. 

The voice of an orderly broke into the stillness of 
the tent. 

“Captain Lincoln,” he said, “we’re ordered to break 
camp. The colonel desires you to prepare your com- 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 233 

pany to change quarters immediately. We are ordered 
up to Dixon’s at once.” 

“ That’s business, boys,” cried the captain, springing 
to his feet. “ Dixon’s it is. Joe, what you going to do 
with this child ? ” 

He stopped in his exit from the tent to look again 
with kindly eyes upon the little refugee, still fast 
asleep. 

“I — I don’t know, sir,” replied Joe, pulling himself 
from his unsolved problem of duty. Here was a matter 
for instant decision. 

The captain looked now at the boy, shrewdly and 
closely. 

“You can’t go traipsing over the country with a little 
six-year-old girl,” said Captain Lincoln. “ You’d look 
after her, of course; but it’s scary sort o’ business escort- 
ing a young lady like that among bloody Injuns and unre- 
liable militiamen. You might leave her at the fort, but 
that’s not just the place. I’ll tell you. Follow us up to 
Dixon’s and just leave her there with old Father Dixon, 
the best man on the Illinois frontier. Na-chu-sa, the 
‘ white-haired one,’ is what the Injuns call him, and a 
white scalp never covered a whiter man. It’ll be nearer 
the child’s home, and although I don’t take much stock 
in a father and mother that’ll leave a little one behind 
just because they’re skeered, still, a father’s a father 


234 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


and a mother’s a mother. Old man Dixon will get her 
back to them or my name’s not A. Lincoln. That’s the 
best way to settle it, Joe.” 

Joe thought so, too. He had about made up his mind 
to push his way back, somehow, across country to 
Eleazer Williams at Green Bay, render an account of 
his mission, and then say good-by to his great dreams 
and become what seemed now so much better than an 
adventurer — a good and loyal son of the republic. So, 
while Captain Lincoln was getting his unruly company 
into shape to proceed (much against their will since the 
news of Stillman’s defeat) into the neighborhood of 
Black Hawk and his warriors, Joe aroused and made 
ready his little charge, and mounting her before him on 
his pony pushed along with the soldiers to Dixon’s on 
the Rock. 

Captain Lincoln kept his eye upon them. He had 
grown rather fond of Joe Harvey, and seemed to fathom 
some of the boy’s problems of conscience and duty. 

The log-house hamlet and crude rope ferry (that then 
stood where is, to-day, the busy, “ hustling ” bridge- 
town of Dixon) was ninety miles or so from the fort, and 
the march was far from rapid. So Joe and the captain 
“ spelled each other ” in looking out for the rough, but 
kindly meant, comfort of Joe’s “foundling.” The little 
girl made for herself a warm place in Joe Harvey’s 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LlNCOLN^S GOOD ADVICE. 235 

heart, and sympathetic Abraham Lincoln was quite as 
strongly attached to her. 

“ Surprising how these little, helpless critters take 
hold of you, isn’t it, Joe } ” the captain said one day as 
he shifted little “Susie,” as they called her, from Joe’s 
saddle to his own. “If ever I get married and have 
any children, I reckon I’ll be powerful fond of ’em. 
How old is your father, Joe.^ A Revolutioner, wasn’t 
he, you said ? ” 

“Yes, sir,” Joe replied, his heart going out, as it did 
every once in a while, to the home-like white farmhouse 
at Chadd’s Ford, and the old man whose “ Benjamin ” 
he had been. “ He’s a pretty old man now, nearly 
seventy-five.” 

“ Seventy-five! that’s a good old age for one of that 
grand old stock to live to,” said Captain Lincoln. 
“ ‘ Seventy-five ’ is the year they cut loose and made a 
stand at Lexington. They were iron men, our fathers 
and grandfathers, eh, Joe.? They fought for a prin- 
ciple they believed in — just as we may have to fight, 
some day ; and whatever we enjoy has come because of 
what they did. I tell you, Joe Harvey, that sentiment 
that begins the Declaration of Independence, ‘ All men 
are created equal,’ is the father of all moral principle in 
us, and every American has a right to claim it whether 
he speaks English or not, whether he came from Ger- 


236 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


many, Ireland, France or Sweden ; for once an 
American, he and his children are always going to be 
Americans — blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh 
of the men who made the wonderful Declaration.” 

“How can you make that out, cap’n.?” demanded 
Joe. “Their ancestors didn’t make it.” 

“ No, but living under it to-day, they have a right to 
claim it, just as much as if they were blood inheritors 
to its makers and signers. That’s what makes us free 
men, Joe Harvey. Lafayette and your old dad fought 
to establish it ; we’ll fight, if need be, to uphold and 
maintain it — for I tell you the opening sentiment of 
that Declaration is the electric cord that links the 
hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, and 
will hold them linked together as long as the love of 
freedom exists in the minds of men all the world over.” 

The voice of the tall backwoods captain, thin and 
almost squeaky at times, fairly thrilled with the fervor 
of his theme and the grandeur of his idea. Joe thrilled 
under it himself. The strong, simple, patriotic words 
of Abraham Lincoln, spoken more as the outcome of 
his own thoughts than as any advice to this boy who 
wished to be an adventurer, were doing more to loosen 
and unsettle the hold that Eleazer Williams had upon 
him than any course of open hostility could have done. 

“Then you believe it’s best to be nothing but an 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 23/ 

American — to stick by the republic through thick and 
thin, do you, Cap’n Lincoln ? ” Joe asked him. “ Don’t 
you believe something may come some day to change 
things here and set our folks to quarrelling — some- 
thing like what Mr. Webster spoke about in his great 
speech that I heard, and which he hoped his eyes 
would never see. I remember just what he said : ‘ God 
grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not 
rise ! God grant that on my vision never may be opened 
what lies behind.’ Supposing it does rise, cap’n, in our 
day, what are we going to do then ? ” 

“ It mustn’t be allowed to come, Joe,” the captain 
replied. “ ‘ Liberty and union, now and forever, one 
and inseparable ! ’ that is what Mr. Webster said, 
wasn’t it ? And ‘ Them’s my sentiments ! ’ as the boys 
say. But if it does rise, — if the curtain does rise, — 
why, Joe — ” the captain removed one hand from the 
little child who smiled up at him from his saddle and 
laid it on the boy’s shoulder convincingly — “ if it does, 
you stick by the Union, son ! Don’t you desert it. 
Don’t be afraid of being unpopular or on the weak side. 
There is no weak side to liberty, Joe. Leave that 
argument to the cowards and knaves. With the free 
and brave it won’t affect anything. It may be true, 
though I won’t believe it ; but if it is, why, let it be so. 
But I tell you this, son : many free countries have lost 


238 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


their liberty, and ours may lose hers ; but if she shall, 
let it be our proudest plume, Joe Harvey, not that we 
were the last to desert, but that we never deserted 
her ! ” 

As this one idea of love of country and loyalty to 
the republic — the idea which was foremost in Abra- 
ham Lincoln’s mind even from his boyhood — found 
expression in this earnest charge to Joe Harvey, the 
godson of Lafayette felt the strength and the truth 
of the young captain’s burning words. But his heart 
sank, even as he mentally applauded Lincoln’s glowing 
words ; for, he thought, did not loyalty to Eleazer Will- 
iams mean, in some way, disloyalty to the republic } 
If he followed Eleazer Williams in his dream of power 
and empire, would not that be deserting the republic ? 
And how could the son of a Revolutioner, the godson 
of Lafayette, ever be a deserter.? 

“ How would it be, Cap’n Lincoln,” he queried, “ if 
a fellow had given a promise and accepted a mission, 
and then felt he was not acting right in doing so — 
ought he to run away and go back on his promise, 

or should he go to the man he had promised, and say 

right out to him, ‘ I won’t do it ! ’ Should he shirk 

his duty, or just go to headquarters and have it out, 

like a man.?” 

Lincoln looked at the boy shrewdly. 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 239 

“ Ah, ha ! the wind’s in that quarter, is it ” he 
said. “What’s up with you, Joe.? What have you 
been promising.? Is it a secret.? Well, I don’t ask 
you to tell it if it is. But my advice is that you go 
straight to the fellow who’s got you to make such a 
promise, and, as you say, have it out with him, like 
a man.” 

“Thank you, cap’n,” said Joe; and then he rode 
on in silence. Lincoln’s advice, he felt, was the only 
honest and true way for him to act, and he decided 
that he would follow it. He would go straight to 
Eleazer Williams and confess his change of heart, 
bid him absolve him from his promise, and let him 
become what he always meant to be — a true and 
loyal son of the republic. 

It was not an easy thing, however, to go straight 
to Eleazer Williams at Green Bay. Many miles of 
dangerous, hostile, and Indian-disturbed country lay 
between Joe and his patron. But when they came to 
Dixon’s, and Joe had given his “foundling” into the 
care and protection of old Father Dixon, he bade 
the captain good-by and, with Daniel Bread, set out 
on his return trip. 

“Good-by, Joe,” said Lincoln. “You’re a good 
chap, and I think a heap of you. Let me know 
some day how you come out in your problem, won’t 


240 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


you ? You’ve got your own way to make ; but I 
know you’ll make it all right. I reckon I’ve got to 
make mine, too. Duty is duty. Let’s both of us do 
it. These fellows in my company are kicking like 
steers now. They don’t see their duty as I do. They 
say their time is up ; they’re tired of soldiering, they 
say; they didn’t enlist, they say, to serve outside of 
Illinois, and they’ll give up and go home rather than 
cross the border into the Wisconsin country. But my 
mind’s made up, Joe. If they disband and go home, 
I won’t. I came here to fight this thing out, and I’m 
not going back until it’s over, even if I have to ’list 
as a private and march in the ranks.” 

And that is just what he did do. For when once 
Abraham Lincoln saw his duty clearly, he did that duty, 
no matter what people said or how they acted. 

Joe Harvey vowed he would do the same — he be- 
lieved he saw his duty now, and he determined to do 
it. So he and Daniel Bread by devious ways and along 
dangerous trails made their way again toward Chicago, 
the little straggling lake village that had risen about 
Fort Dearborn. 

They had escaped the Indian raiders of Black 
Hawk’s band, and the equally dangerous, because more 
lawless, straggling white desperadoes that are the curse 
of every factional war. But as they rode into the little 


CAPTAIN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S GOOD ADVICE. 24 1 

village by the lake, the very first person that Joe saw 
riding down from the fort was the man he had 
“downed” in Washington — Eleazer Williams’s most 
determined enemy, Colonel Stambaugh, the Indian 
agent, and, beside the colonel, rode another person 
whom Joe recognized at once. It was the “crazy 
Frenchmen,” whom he had turned from Mr. Ogden’s 
office in New York, and whom he had played into the 
hands of Eleazer Williams at Washington, — Maurice 
Bellenger, — worshipper of Napoleon, hater of the 
Bourbons, the acknowledged spy upon the actions of 
Eleazer Williams. 

“There are other troubles worse than Injuns,” Joe 
said to himself. But, never faltering, he rode straight 
toward these enemies of his “ patron,” who had already 
seen and recognized him. 


CHAPTER XV. 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 

ERE, sir ! I know you ! Halt, and explain your- 



A A self ! ” the colonel commanded. “ What are you 
doing here, and what’s that Injun doing with you ? 
Where’s the Reverend Williams, your master Rev- 
erend scamp, I call him ! ” 

“It is — it is the Bourbon’s spy, my colonel! It is, 
sacre mille tonnerres! ” cried the Frenchman, excitedly. 
“ Now we will know his tricks. It is he shall tell 
us what he is to do here — here on the Indian war 
field.” 

“ Gentlemen,” said Joe, endeavoring to be icily polite 
but uncommunicative, “my business is my own con- 
cern. I do not know what right you have to stop me 
in a public place.” 

“ What right I ” retorted Colonel Stambaugh, and 
“what right! ” echoed the Frenchman Bellenger, fling- 
ing out his hands in characteristic gesture toward the 
colonel. “ Why, boy, the game is mine now. I am in 
command of the Green Bay district now, and your 


242 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 


243 


tricky friend Eleazer must either show his hand or 
turn to the woods. The government will have no 
coquetting with these hostile Injuns now that Black 
Hawk is on the war-path, and no more Eastern Indians 
are to be transported here, either by Williams or any 
one else, boy, — any one else, I said, — to add new com- 
plications to this Indian rebellion. Do you see now 
where my right comes in ” 

Well! if that was so it was good-by to the big 
dream of Eleazer Williams, was Joe’s mental comment 
— and at once, so variable is the boy nature, he began 
to feel badly for his disappointed patron. But he 
showed nothing of this in voice or manner. He did 
not propose to lay his heart bare before these exultant 
enemies. 

“ But I don’t see how that can affect me. Colonel 
Stambaugh,” he declared, “ and I tell you I deny your 
authority to stop me or question me — you or your 
funny friend here, who gets as hot under the collar as 
my old white horse at the Ford, and could give points to 
the Prophet on how to get crazy, and keep so.” 

“Funny! crazy, ah, it is a coqinn — a miserable — 
what you call a ras-cal, this garqon, this young pairsonn 
here,” cried the Frenchman, fairly shaking his fist in 
Joe’s defiant face. “Said I not truly he was a spy for 
that Bourbon El-ezar, my colonel ^ Shall we not put 


244 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


him in the menotte^ — the cuff for the hands, my colonel, 
— he and his Indian here, and clap them both into the 
cachot — the prison at the fort ? ” 

“ Softly, softly, sir,” replied the colonel; “ Tm afraid 
the lad’s right about your getting hot under the collar. 
You trust this to me. So, young Harvey, you' don’t 
see how all this can affect you, eh ? Well, I’ll tell you. 
I said your friend Eleazer must either show his hand or 
take to the woods. Now, you’re one of the fingers on 
his hand, and I propose to open you out. I propose to 
find out what you are doing — you and your friend the 
Oneida — out here, altogether too close to Black Hawk’s 
war-path to be travelling for pleasure. Whose errand 
have you two been off on — Williams’s ? ” 

Joe drew himself up in as dignified a style as possible. 

“ I still deny your right to question me. Colonel 
Stambaugh,” he replied ; “ but to calm your suspicions. 
I’ll refer you, for your answer, to General Atkinson in 
command over the border ; to Lieutenant Anderson, the 
inspector-general of militia; to Colonel Taylor of the 
advance, or to Captain Abraham Lincoln in camp at 
Dixon’s. I have been following the trail with them 
and have been acting under their orders on special 
messenger service, as they will tell you, if you ask 
them.” 

“ Oh, ho ! you’ve seen which side of your bread is but- 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 


245 


tered, have you ? ” said Stambaugh. “ Come, that’s 
better. I reckon we’ll keep you to that service then. 
If you’re on your way to Green Bay to see Mr. Will- 
iams, I reckon you’d best go in my company. I’m 
bound up that way to-day to recruit the Menominee 
Indians for service against Black Hawk and his rebels, 
and if you’re so good a friend of the government and 
have been with the troops so recently, you’ll be handy 
to have along. I am commissioned to call upon all 
good, law-abiding citizens for help and service ; so I 
think I’ll summon you as such. The Menominees are 
not very good friends of your Eleazer and his New 
York Indians, you know, and you can show your loyalty 
by helping me with them rather than lighting the Rev- 
erend Eleazer on his path to empire.” 

Joe was silent a moment. He did not relish this talk 
of loyalty from Colonel Stambaugh ; it had not the tone 
or the flavor of the same word that Captain Lincoln or 
Lieutenant Anderson urged upon him. But was it not 
best to agree ? he wondered. To do as the colonel de- 
manded would give him the opportunity he desired to 
get as speedily as possible to Green Bay and have 
things out with Mr. Williams; to refuse might bring 
him into unnecessary trouble, for Colonel Stambaugh 
just now seemed to be in authority — the man on top, 
as Joe put it to himseli 


246 


THE GODSON OE LAFAYETTE. 


“ All right, colonel,” he said. “ I’m ready to accom- 
pany you; but not as one under suspicion, I tell you. 
I’ve seen too many signs of the horrors of this Indian 
uprising — in ruined fields and homes and terrified 
women and children — to find any pleasure in this war. 
Let’s get to Green Bay and help end the thing as soon 
as we can. Only Injuns against Injuns seems mighty 
brutal.” 

“ Out on the prairies here, my boy,” replied the 
colonel, in a more friendly tone, “ we have to learn how 
to fight fire with fire, you know. And that’s the only 
way to end this Indian business. The Menominees 
are friendly, and I’m going to use them, and, if you are 
friendly. I’m going to use you, too. I’m glad you see 
your duty ; for I tell you, lad,” he added in yet more 
kindly fashion than he had used toward the boy whom 
he had always considered as “Williams’s spy,” “ I hate 
to see a bright boy like you on the wrong track, and 
Eleazer the reverend is as surely on the wrong track as 
Black Hawk. This Western country is the white man’s 
opportunity, and we don’t propose to leave it to Indians 
who have no means or wish to develop it. That’s why 
I don’t believe in Williams and his Indian fetching. 
Reservations are good enough for Injuns. We’ll keep 
’em within bounds and so help the white man to improve 
the land. Come along with me and help.” 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 


247 


Do I go as your aide or your prisoner, colonel.?” 
demanded Joe, looking with a questioning nod toward 
Bellenger, who had remained uneasily quiet during 
Stambaugh’s talk. “ Is it safe to keep company with 
that firebrand .? First I know he may be killing me 
as a Bourbon spy — whatever that may be ; and I do 
want to keep my head. I’ve got use for it.” 

The colonel laughed. He began to like the frank, 
merry young fellow whom he had looked upon before 
only as a marplot and a tool of Eleazer Williams. 

“ You want to learn how to handle firebrands, son,” 
he said ; “ don’t stir ’em up so that they’ll set you afire, 
but use ’em so that they’ll be of service to you. Come 
along ; I’ll see that our excitable friend don’t tread on 
your toes too often. I’ve use for him, too, among some 
of the French Injuns and voyageurs.” 

Thus were Joe Harvey and his Oneida friend added 
to Colonel Stambaugh’s “staff,” and that very day 
went northward through Mil-wa-kee along the lake 
shore to Green Bay and the country of the friendly 
Menominees, sworn foes to the hostile Sacs. 

• Almost as hostile and quite as ill assorted as Me- 
nominee and Sac was this northward-bound “ staff ” ; 
for each one was uncertain of the other, watchful 
against possible defections or complications, and con- 
stantly on guard. The colonel was not sure of Joe, and 


2^8 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Joe was dubious as to the intentions of the colonel; the 
peppery Frenchman was smothering his fires of wrath 
against the “ Bourbon spy,” while Joe was ever on his 
guard against a possible French outburst, and Colonel 
Stambaugh felt that to manage the two was like hand- 
ling fire and tow. As for Daniel Bread, the Oneida, he 
was distrusted by each and all of them; for even Joe 
could not know just how far the Indian would resent 
his intentions with reference to Eleazer Williams, which 
were known or at least suspected by the faithful Daniel. 

So, with an apparent surface of friendship, but with 
suspicion in their hearts, the four pushed on to Green 
Bay. All through the Menominee country which they 
traversed — practically the whole southern part of what 
is now Wisconsin, from Green Bay to the Illinois line 
— there were signs of gathering and councils among 
the red enemies of Black Hawk and his Sacs. And 
when at last the little French and half-breed settlement 
at what might be called the bottom of the pocket of 
Lake Michigan, then known as “ Shantytown,” was 
reached, the space about Fort Howard and what is now, 
across the river, the town of Green Bay, was filled with 
a concourse of friendly Indians gathered to meet the 
white chief who had summoned them for the war-path. 

It was much like the gathering of war-like redmen 
that Joe had seen at the camp of Black Hawk in the 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 


249 


Prophet’s town — a noisy, nondescript assemblage of 
wild Indians, young and old, women and pappooses, war 
chiefs and bucks. A detachment of soldiers from the 
fort had marched out to meet the commissioner, and 
with this military escort, amid throngs of welcoming 
and shouting Menominees, Joe Harvey entered upon 
what he had for months looked forward to as the gate- 
way to his kingdom — the trading-post of Green Bay. 

It was scarcely the fulfilment that he had looked 
forward to since first, beside the shallow Brandywine, 
he had dreamed of the great and glorious oppor- 
tunity with which Eleazer Williams had lured him 
from his home. A primitive frontier fort garrisoned 
by soldiers of the United States, and guarding the 
entrance to the river ; across the stream an even more 
primitive frontier village, so humble and unattractive 
as to be called “ Shantytown,” half-breed families, a 
few broken-down French voyageurs, a few decrepit 
old trading-houses tottering on the river bank, the 
ruins of the old Langlade ‘‘mansion,” once the home 
of the Sieur de Langlade, lord of the manor in the 
former days of French supremacy; a tumble-down 
old grist mill, and other antiquated relics of Pon- 
tiac’s conspiracy; a horde of shouting, wild Indians, 
haters of Black Hawk and of the Eastern redmen 
who were to be the “sinew” of the Indian empire, 


250 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


— none of those promised Eastern warriors, and no 
Eleazer Williams in sight, — this was what greeted 
Joseph Lafayette Harvey as he entered, half-prisoner 
and half-renegade, into the confines of Green Bay, 
the seat of his promised empire ! 

But where was Eleazer Williams ? Why was he not 
at hand to greet his returning embassy, upon whose 
triumphant home-coming he had based his coveted 
league with Black Hawk and his band.? Joe was 
wofully disappointed. He was about to say as much 
to Daniel Bread, who rode beside him, when a low 
note of warning from that disgruntled companion-in- 
arms caused the boy to follow his watchful glance, 
and Joe recognized, amid the mingled throng of half- 
breeds, French, and Indians, the unobtrusive figure of 
Cornelius Bear, the other Oneida “counsellor” of 
Eleazer Williams. Evidently he, too, was in no haste 
to shout his welcome. 

There was a temporary bit of confusion and excite- 
ment as Colonel Stambaugh greeted certain officers 
from Fort Howard who came out to meet him, and as 
Oshkosh, the young war chief of the Menominees, with 
a half-dozen red warriors of his tribe, gathered about 
the colonel. 

“ Quick, boy ! follow us,” said Daniel Bread, in a 
half-whisper, as, turning his pony about, he stepped 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 25 1 

around the crowd and followed the withdrawing figure 
of Cornelius Bear. “ I go to find my brother Williams.” 

Joe needed no second warning to effect his escape 
from his half-captivity. He, too, turned his pony about 
and followed the Oneida. But only for a moment did 
he avoid detection, for, just as, answering a word and 
a look from Daniel Bread, Cornelius Bear sprang to 
the pony’s back behind his brother Oneida, and just 
as Joe had pressed forward to join them, he heard a 
loud call from the throng he had left, and, glancing 
back, he saw the Frenchman Bellenger in full pur- 
suit. 

“ Arritez ! arretez ! ” came his shrill cry. But neither 
Joe nor the two Oneidas proposed to arretez T They 
were determined to join the Reverend Eleazer at once, 
wherever he might be, and, with redoubled vigor, they 
galloped away from the throng before the fort. 

Evidently there was too much going on between 
Colonel Stambaugh, the officers, and the Indian chiefs 
to notice their sudden secession from the colonel’s 
‘‘staff.” Only the Frenchman pursued them. Then 
it was that a brilliant plan flashed into Joe’s mind. 
It came to him as a master-stroke, and, heedless of 
consequences as he had ever been when action seemed 
desirable, he drew rein at once and bade the Oneidas 
do so too. 


252 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“ Be ready to help me, brothers,” he said. “ We’ll 
put a stop to Mr. Bellenger’s fun.” 

He wheeled about, and advanced to meet the 
Frenchman. 

“What’s the matter, sir.?” he inquired innocently. 
“Have we forgotten anything.?” 

“ Forgotten ! ” exclaimed the excitable Frenchman, 
riding in between the two ponies. “ Ma foiy it is your- 
selves — yourselves, canaille, that is forgotten by you. 
Gome back to the colonel ! He has need of you.” 

“As we have of you, Mr. Bellenger,” said Joe, and, 
with a swift movement, he flung an arm about the 
Frenchman’s neck, and fairly forced him from his 
saddle. “ Daniel, hoist our friend up in front of me, 
that’s it ; now you borrow his horse and let Cornelius 
Bear keep yours. You ride on one side, and, Cornelius, 
you ride on the other. Now, sir,” and his sturdy 
young arm fairly pinned Bellenger to the seat in 
front of him where the Oneida had hoisted him up, 
“don’t you squirm; and don’t you holler, or it will 
be worse for you. We need you badly. Mr. Williams 
will want to have a talk with you, and the colonel 
will have to spare you. Off we go, now ! Ride fast, 
my brothers, and go straight to Mr. Williams’s house.” 

Then the three mounts galloped swiftly along the 
road southward from Green Bay, while the Frenchman, 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 


253 


fearing for his life from these desperate kidnappers, 
silenced his vigorous protests as one who understood 
that, in this case, discretion was the better part of valor. 

Over the road that skirted the banks of the Fox 
River they galloped hard, and finally, beyond the 
rapids, saw the small group of houses that made 
the settlement of Little Kakaulin, ten miles from 
Fort Howard and the Bay. 

“ There lives our brother Williams,” announced 
Cornelius Bear; “and there he waits to meet you.” 

Before a modest little frame house, not far from 
the river, Cornelius Bear drew rein, and almost before 
Joe had time to choose his words of explanation the 
door opened and Eleazer Williams came from the 
house. 

“So you are back at last, Joseph,” he said. “Come 
in, son, and report. You are welcome to Little 
Kakaulin. Cornelius, see to the horses. You and 
Daniel have had a long trip, Joe, and I fear to no 
purpose. But who could have thought that Black 
Hawk would have acted so swiftly.” 

“Mr. Williams,” said Joe, bidding his French pris- . 
oner dismount, “we have brought one against his will, 
who would have harmed you had he stayed behind — 
Mr. Bellenger, whom you met in Washington.” 

“Ah, my French friend who was with Colonel 


254 the godson of LAFAYETTE. 

Stambaugh,” said William. “ I bid you welcome, 
sir. And how is the colonel } ” 

“I protest, sare,” cried the Frenchman, finding his 
voice. “I have been enforced — what you call kid-a- 
nap — by this g-ar^on of yours. My colonel will punish 
you, sare, and he — this garqon, sare — he shall be 
hanged on a deserteur, le seder at ^ ze — coqian — how 
you call it — ras-cal.” 

“ Oh, my dear sir,” said Williams, taking the French- 
man’s unwilling hand, “not as bad as all that, I 
hope. Joseph is hasty, perhaps, but not bad. He is 
faithful. He knew I would wish to see you, as I do. 
Will you honor me, sir } Pray enter my poor house.” 

But Joe stopped him upon the threshold. 

“ Mr. Williams,” he said, “ my word is passed to 
Colonel Stambaugh. I must return to him, or I may 
be what the Frenchman says — a deserter. This Mr. 
Bellenger is a fiery chap, and may do you harm if he 
is at large. I leave him with you. But as for me, I 
must return. See, sir, here is your money — what 
is left of it after our expenses. It was right that I 
should see you and report that our mission was use- 
less. Black Hawk sent you the red wampum — the 
token of war — war, Mr. Williams, against the United 
States whose loyal son I am. I will be no party to 
treason, and your way, into which you would force 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OE DUTY. 255 

me, is, I now see, treason to the republic. I will 
not be mixed up in it. I am my father’s son, and 
he fought for independence. I bear the name of 
Lafayette, and he helped the republic to freedom*. 
I will not do anything against the republic, even if 
your way should lead to glory and power. I am 
through with you. Good-by, sir, and look out for 
yourself. You have powerful enemies.” 

Across the swarthy features of the man who is still 
an American mystery, surprise, anger, fear, and cun- 
ning followed each other in quick succession. Motion- 
ing to Daniel Bread to conduct the Frenchman into 
the house before Joe’s speech of renunciation was 
completed, Williams advanced to the boy and laid a 
hand upon his arm. Joe would have flung it off and 
fled out of temptation and along the road to the fort, 
but his “ patron ” prevented him. 

“And where should you go for the truth, Joseph, 
— to my enemies.?” demanded the Reverend Eleazer. 
“ It is from me, from me who has never deceived you, 
that you should hear the truth. I have shared with 
you my secret thoughts, son,” he added, as, linking 
his arm into that of the boy, he led Joe down to the 
river bank, and, beneath the great oaks, proceeded to 
undo the lessons that Joe had learned through the 
experiences of his wandering. 


256 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

“I have shared my secret thoughts, my noblest 
desires, with you,” he repeated; “and behold! when 
things go wrong or false friends counsel him, Joseph, 
my son, upon whom I depended, deserts me ! It is 
the way of the world, dear lad,” he added, patheti- 
cally, “and I ought not to be surprised. But I did 
not look for it from you, Joe; I did not look for it 
from you.” 

“I’m sure I don’t want to misjudge you, sir,” said 
Joe, touched by the man’s words ; “but see how things 
have all come out. I very nearly lost my life, and was 
really arrested twice for taking your message to Black 
Hawk. Instead of peace, the chief has rushed into 
war, and is murdering and scalping all over the terri- 
tory. Instead of the great union of the Western Ind- 
ians you promised, the tribes are all at swords’ points, 
trying to cut each other’s throats. The Eastern Ind- 
ians are not to come here, as you said they should. 
Colonel Stambaugh says they shall never come. And, 
worse than all, men whom I have learned to trust and 
believe say that you are plotting to work against the 
best interest and the real safety of the United States 
by joining the Indians in a rebellious and bloody 
league, and that, if I go with you, I shall be a traitor 
and an enemy of the republic.” 

“Who said all that, Joe.?” demanded Williams. 


Simply A question of duty. 


257 


“Why, Governor Cass said so at Detroit, and so 
does Colonel Stambaugh,” Joe replied. 

“Two men who hate me, because they are my 
bitter rivals, and are angry at my hold over the Ind- 
ians, who have learned to trust me,” said the mis- 
sionary. 

“ General Atkinson said so, too, at Fort Armstrong,” 
the boy continued, “and so did Colonel Taylor and 
Lieutenant Anderson.” 

“Army men who want the Indians hunted down, 
and know no law but that of the cruel service to which 
they are slaves,” Williams declared. 

“ And Captain Lincoln said so,” said Joe. “ He’s no 
army man.” 

“Lincoln — what Lincoln.? I don’t know him. Who 
is he .? ” queried Williams. 

“He’s captain of the Sangamon company in the 
militia,” explained Joe. “ He’s been brought up among 
these people and knows a lot.” 

“ A frontiersman who believes nothing but lies about 
the Indians, and can’t see any good in them,” said Will- 
iams.” 

“Well, he’s a good man,” protested Joe. “ He saved 
Daniel Bread’s life,” and then he hastily told how. 

“Well-meaning; but an ignorant fellow, as are all 
these rough frontiersmen,” Eleazer Williams declared. 


s 


258 tHE GODSON Of LAFAYETTE. 

as he listened to the tale. “What can he or any of 
these men know of my beneficent plans, which include 
not only the well-being of these Indians, but the pro- 
tection and comfort of this savage border-land ? Noth- 
ing, I tell you, Joe ; nothing. And as to your being a 
traitor and a foe to the republic, son — have you no 
faith in me that you listen to such senseless chatter ? I, 
only, am the friend of the republic; they are the real 
foes, for they would harm and cripple their country. 
Had I not been hampered and persecuted by such 
men as Cass and Stambaugh, who think only of their 
own selfish interests, I would even now have my Eastern 
Indians here, and my grand plan of union would be in 
force, to the real benefit of the republic. 

“But,” he continued, “I compel no man, Joe Har- 
vey, certainly no bright boy like you, who has so high a 
sense of duty and should know me better than to think 
me a traitor and a schemer. Go back to your colonel, 
son. If you believe Stambaugh and do not trust me, 
go back to him at the fort, and leave me in sorrow and 
in sadness to do my work alone, and to sigh over the loss 
of him upon whom I looked as the one faithful comrade 
I had made, for whose brilliant future I had planned, 
as the sharer of my successes and the companion of my 
day of triumph. Go, Joe ; I would not seek to hold you. 
See ! I give you back your promise. You are free.” 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 259 

He turned away, and walked slowly back to his 
house, leaving Joe beneath the oaks torn by conflicting 
thoughts. Things did sound so differently, the boy 
decided, when different people said them. 

Suddenly Eleazer Williams turned about and came 
back to the lad. 

“A canoe is just going down the river, Joe,” he said. 
“Jean, the old voyageur, is taking some vegetables down 
to the fort. I’ll hail him and ask him to take you back. 
And here’s your money, Joe. I shall not keep it. I 
ask no man to serve me, empty-handed. You did faith- 
ful work for me while you trusted me. This is but your 
well-earned wages. Keep it, and try to think better 
of me. Wait here, and I’ll have Pierre take you in. 
Good-by, son, and God bless you ! Some day you will 
see how right I was and be sorry for your lack of faith 
in me.” 

Again he turned and walked away, while Joe, with 
the money in his hand, looked at it and at the patron 
he was deserting. 

For, spite of his decision to go back and keep his 
word to Colonel Stambaugh, Joe felt that it was a 
desertion. He felt mean and sorry over his action, and 
began to believe that he alone was in the wrong and 
that Mr. Williams was right. But he must go back to 
the fort. 


26 o 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


The old voyageur came floating down the stream. 
He hailed the boy on the bank and shot his canoe in 
beside him, bidding him come aboard. 

“Mestair Villiams, he say you go to the fort wiz 
me, gargoHy' he said. Amchez ! come along. I 
must go wizout ze long air wait.” 

Mechanically Joe stepped into the frail craft, and 
dropping to the bottom of the canoe, was soon shoot- 
ing down the river. 

The old voyageur was not a talkative companion, 
and Joe had plenty of time for thought. He felt 
that he was turning his back upon the great oppor- 
tunity of his life. But why did Mr. Williams let 
him off so easily, he wondered. He had expected a 
tussle, bitter words, perhaps ; certainly, harsher language 
than had been given him. Perhaps he was all wrong 
in his thoughts and actions; but “I’d rather make a 
mistake than be a traitor,” he declared to himself. 

“Ah! I am forgetting,” the old voyageur said at 
last, breaking in upon Joe’s unsatisfactory reveries. 
“ He bid me tell you, ze boy, zat you ask ze com- 
mandant, ze agent Colonel Stamboo, is it not, zat 
he would speak wiz him. He would talk about ze 
Menominees, and how zay be kept quiet.” 

Joe nodded. 

“ But will they be quiet } ” he queried. “ They are 


SIMPLY A QUESTION OF DUTY. 26 1 

here to go on the war-path against Black Hawk. 
What can Mr. Williams do ” 

The old voyageur shrugged his shoulders in 
non-committal fashion. Then he pointed his paddle 
straight at Joe, in direct query. 

“ See here, boy,” he said ; how long you know 
M’sieu Villiams.^” 

“Oh,” replied Joe, “a few months.” 

The voyageur shrugged his shoulders once more, 
dipped his paddle for a few vigorous strokes, and 
then pointed it straight at Joe again, this time with 
a gesture of conviction. 

“Few mont’s ! eh, bien^' he said, “vat es few 
mont’s, garqo7if I know M’sieu Villiams, two, three — 
eight year. He ver’ smart man. You think Injuns, 
Yankees, any one get ahead of M’sieu Villiams.? 
Nevare ! He have it all his vay, ’fore you vake up 
some fine mornin’. Those Injuns all do vat he say.” 

“You don’t mean he’d fool ’em, cheat ’em, do 
you.?” queried Joe, somewhat at a loss to give the 
voyageur’s assertion a meaning. 

“How you call it — fool — oh, cheat ’em.? Him?” 
replied the old man. “ Listen, garqon. It not so 
easy to cheat Injun. He got eyes, ears, he see all. 
Me .? I try it ; I try it twenty, thirty years, and I 
never do it yet.” 


262 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“Well, how’s Mr. Williams going to get the best 
of ’em then ? ” 

For answer the old trader and voyageur only plied 
his paddle dexterously, and once more gave his non- 
committal shrug. 

“You watch out, boy,” he said. “M’sieu Villiams 
do it yet, I say. He is monstrous smart.” 

And not another word of explanation would he 
give. 

They speedily reached the fort, and Joe at once 
proceeded to hunt up Colonel Stambaugh. He saw 
him soon, still in consultation with Oshkosh, the 
Menominee, and his chiefs. 

“Hullo, Harvey!” cried the colonel. “You’re 
around, are you ? I thought you’d taken leg bail. 
Where is Bellenger.? What you done with him ” 

Joe Harvey had clean forgotten his kidnapped 
Frenchman. From the excitement of his interview 
and farewells at Eleazer Williams’s home, he had 
come away so filled with worrying thoughts that 
he never remembered that he might be held respon- 
sible for Bellenger and his doings. 

“Why, sir,” he replied, startled into one of his 
customary direct replies, “I — I left him with Mr. 
Williams. Whew ! won’t he be hopping mad 1 ” 


CHAPTER XVL 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 

T he colonel strode out from his redskin council 
and caught the boy by the shoulders. 

“ Mad ! I should say so ! ” he exclaimed. “ But what 
about me ? Have you been playing me false, boy ? 
Have you been making your spy report to that sneak of 
a Williams .? ” 

“Colonel Stambaugh!” cried Joe, “you have no 
right to say that to me, sir ; I am no spy. I have made 
no report nor have I said a word as to your actions. I 
saw Mr. Williams and demanded that he release me 
from my promise. I will be honorable, even if I do 
back out from my agreement. And he treated me like 
a gentleman, he did. He said to me, ‘ God bless you and 
good-by,’ and did not try to force me to stay.” 

“ He said God bless you, and good-by, and did not 
try to force you to stay ? ” the colonel repeated mechan- 
ically. “ He didn’t try to worm any secrets out of you or 
get you to block my plans ? Why, what’s come over 
the Reverend Eleazer ? He’s either sick, or crazy, or is 

263 


264 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


playing some low-down game. What did he keep 
Bellenger for.? Did he send you word to kidnap the 
Frenchman .? ” 

No, sir ; that was my doing, just to keep him quiet,” 
Joe replied. “ He was trying to force us back to the 
front, and I settled him by taking him with us, — and 
then forgot him.” 

“ Hm,” grunted the colonel; “then the old rat thinks 
Bellenger is better game than you are, I reckon. He’ll 
work him into some scheme, see if he doesn’t. You 
have to get up early in the morning to get ahead of 
Eleazer Williams. He’s a mighty smart chap, as I’ve 
found out more than once. You just want to watch out 
for Eleazer, boy.” 

It was the same declaration that the old voyageur 
had made. Joe wondered what they meant. Then he 
remembered Mr. Williams’s message. 

“Oh, colonel,” he said, “Mr. Williams sent word to 
me by the boatman who paddled me down the river 
that he wished to talk with you about these Menomi- 
nees.” 

“ Ah ha ! he did, did he .? The wind’s in that quarter, 
is it .? ” said the colonel. “ I thought he had some kind 
of a plan, he let you off so easily. Don’t you see 
through it, boy .? He’s used you all he can ; he’s come 
to the end of his rope, and he wants to make terms with 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 265 

me. You can’t do him any good at the Little Kakaulin; 
but you can do him good here at the fort. So he lets 
you come away and then sends a message by you as if 
it were an afterthought. Yes, yes; he’s a smart one, 
I tell you. But I’m up to him. I’ve got the whip 
handle, and it’s my turn now. Watch out, Eleazer ; 
watch out! I’ve got my eye on you.” 

Joe resented the colonel’s inference that Eleazer 
Williams, having come upon a disastrous turn in his 
affairs, had no further use for his young associate, and 
was quite ready to drop him, while seeming to make the 
reason for the break the boy’s desertion rather than his 
own desire to be rid of him. But Joe Harvey was 
slowly learning the ways of the world, and had already 
discovered that man’s selfishness was at the bottom of 
most of man’s doings, though it was often misnamed 
duty, patriotism, or right. It is so hard, sometimes, for 
well-intentioned people to separate the good from the 
bad, where both seem to wear the same expression of 
countenance. 

He did not answer Colonel Stambaugh, however. 
When men have fixed opinions, it is useless for a boy 
to combat them. And Joe knew that Colonel Stam- 
baugh had no faith in Eleazer Williams. 

“I’ll watch out myself,” he said to himself; “but 
I’ll watch both sides of the fence.” 


266 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“ What can I do, colonel, to show my willingness ? ” 
he inquired. “ Or am I a prisoner, sir ? ” 

I suppose I ought to hold you as hostage for Bel- 
lenger, Joe,” laughed the colonel. “After kidnapping 
that flaring firebrand and then clean forgetting him, 
the least you can do is to bring him back. Go back 
to Little Kakaulin, lad, and release him.” 

“ But that will bring me under Mr. Williams’s influ- 
ence again, sir,” said Joe, slyly; “and you say that is 
the worst thing that could happen.” 

“Ah! but you’re getting your eyes opened, Joe,” 
said the colonel. “You’re no longer a blind young 
cub; you’re beginning to see things. I’ll make a test 
of you. If you can stand against Eleazer Williams’s 
wiles, you’re all right; if you can’t — then you’re no 
good to any one. But if you really wish to serve your 
country and prove your new devotion, go up to see 
Williams, — and see him, Joe!” 

“ See him .? ” queried the boy, not altogether fathom- 
ing the meaning of the colonel’s emphasis. 

“Yes, see him,” echoed the colonel. “S — e— e 
him. That means, see what you can and all that you 
can; hear all that you can and find out more, and 
then let me know all you’ve seen and heard and 
found.” 

“Do you mean, colonel,” said Joe, slowly, as the 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 267 

meaning of his mission dawned upon him, “that 
you want me to play the spy on Mr. Williams ? ” 

“ Did I say spy, boy ? ” demanded the colonel. 
“No; but I think you meant it, sir,” Joe replied, 
“ and a spy I will not be. I’ll do anything, sir, but 
that. Mr. Williams has been a good friend to me, 
and to play false with him would not be honorable. 
My father told me they used to hang spies in the 
Revolution — and served ’em right.” 

“That depends what side they were on, Joe,” said 
the colonel. “ It was right for us to hang British 
spies, like Andre ; but the spies who worked for the 
Americans, as Nathan Hale did, were heroes. Can’t 
you see that between the two there is a great gulf ? ” 
“No, I can’t, sir,” replied honest Joe. “A spy is 
a spy, and I’ll never be one, — especially on a man 
who has done so much for me as Mr. Williams.” 

“ Stuff and nonsense, boy ! ” cried Colonel Stam- 
baugh ; “ a lot he’s done for you, if your story is true. 
He lured you from your home and your duty there 
with the bait of glittering promises and a most unsub- 
stantial dream of riches, position, and power. Has 
one of these been fulfilled ? Not one. Here you are, 
far away from your home, cast off by Williams and 
suspected by your own people. Why, there isn’t 
another officer in the service who would do what I 


268 


THE GODSON OP LAFAYETTE. 


am doing with you. No, sir; they’d hustle you off 
to the guard-house, or drum you out of camp as a 
suspect. If you think you are owing anything to 
Eleazer Williams but harm, you’re not the far-seeing 
boy I take you for. If you think you owe nothing 
to me, as a representative of the government, who 
really ought to punish or imprison you, then you 
haven’t a clear idea of gratitude. Do you mean to 
fail me ” 

“No, sir, I don’t,” replied Joe, remorseful and yet 
determined. “ I am grateful to you. Colonel Stambaugh, 
but I can’t be a spy, sir. Please don’t make me one.” 

The colonel swung on his heel as if he would leave 
the boy to his own stubbornness. Then he faced Joe 
again with a laugh. 

“ Hanged if I don’t honor you for your convictions ! 
you good-for-nothing piece of blundering persistency,” 
he said. “ I ought to make you do as I say, or lock 
you up as a matter of discipline, Joe. But I won’t do 
either. Here ! I’ll give you a mount, and do you ride up 
to Little Kakaulin. Bring that Frenchman Bellenger 
back with you and tell Mr. Williams I have neither time 
nor inclination to see him just now. The government 
has decided about his Injuns — so you can tell the Rev- 
erend Eleazer. I have despatches that tell me that. Tell 
him that the commissioner of Indian affairs will let 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 269 

no more of the New York Indians come this way. 
Those who are here will be placed on a reservation, 
eight miles by twelve, on the banks of Lake Winnebago, 
or on another, twelve miles square, on Duck Creek, as 
the Senate may decide. That’s all the stock the govern- 
ment takes in Brother Williams’s scheme. And much 
good may it do his reverence ! As for the Menominees, 
I have the word of their chief, Oshkosh. They will 
follow my lead to the war with Black Hawk, and if we 
don’t finish up that old rebel pretty quick and put an 
end to all this talk of an Indian league or an Indian 
confederacy, then my name is not Stambaugh. My 
compliments to Mr. Eleazer Williams, and tell him it’s 
my turn now. My advice to him is to crawl into a hole 
and pull the hole in after him. The United States has 
no use for him, and I don’t believe the Indians have 
either. Go to the mess-tent, Joe, and get something to 
eat. Then report to me, and I’ll give you a mount to 
Little Kakaulin. See that I have Bellenger back to-day. 
I’ve got use for him.” 

Joe sought the mess-tent as directed and ate a hasty 
but very thoughtful meal. He felt that Colonel Stam- 
baugh had pronounced the death-warrant of the great 
dream of Eleazer Williams. Was not it also the death- 
warrant of Joseph Lafayette Harvey’s dreams.? All 
that he had left home for, all that he had lived and 


2/0 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


labored for, was cast down in defeat. Well, at any rate, 
he had not waited for the catastrophe before seeing his 
duty and doing it. No one could charge him with being 
false to the republic, and as for his vanished dream — 
pouf ! good-by ! He wasn’t any kind of a go-ahead 
American boy, if he couldn’t win a name and success 
some other way. He remembered something from his 
reading book at school : — 

“ ’Tis not in mortals to command success ; 

But we’ll do more, Sempronius ; we’ll deserve it.” 

Joe Harvey was bound that he would deserve success; 
he was not at all sure but that, somehow, somewhere, 
he would put himself into position to command it, too. 
A little thing like that never staggers a wide-awake 
American boy. 

He found the horse in readiness, and once again he 
pushed up the river road from the fort at Green Bay 
to Little Kakaulin, with some misgivings, it must be 
confessed, wide-awake and go-ahead though he was ; 
he dismounted before the house of Eleazer Williams. 
Somehow or other things do not always look the same 
when you anticipate them as when you really face 
them. But here was Joe Harvey’s opportunity to 
“ command success.” Could he ? he wondered. 

A pleasant-faced young woman opened the door. 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 


271 


It was Mary Jourdain — the pretty but uneducated 
half-breed wife of the man who, years after, was to 
boldly claim the throne of France, and declare that 
his young Indian wife (she was but little more than 
one-third his age) was a blood relation of the kings 
of France. 

This royal descent was, however, unsuspected and 
unknown when the door opened to Joe Harvey at 
Little Kakaulin, and Mrs. Williams greeted him with 
a smile of inquiry. 

Mistair Williams.?” she said, as Joe stated his 
wishes. “ He is busy over some writings that have 
come to him. Who is it would see him .? ” 

Joe gave his name. 

“Ah, so! You are Mistair Joseph — the young boy 
he has talked of.?” said the missionary’s wife. “He 
is saying you have cut him to the heart. Are you, 
perhaps, of the Sacs who are on the war-path, and 
have a knife in your sleeve .? I think it not possible. 
So come you in. I will tell Mistair Williams.” 

She ushered him in with a smile that certainly did 
not look like a welcome to an assassin, and Joe soon 
stood face to face with his former patron and chief. 

“ Ah, it is you, Joseph ! ” said the missionary. “ And 
why .? Have you thought better of your decision .? 
Have you come again to join your fortunes to those 


272 THE QODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

of the man who loves you like a son ? I fear it is 
too late, my boy. This miserable war into which Black 
Hawk has plunged the border has set my plans back 
sadly, and I must delay the fulfilment of the dream 
we had together by the side of your storied Brandy- 
wine.” 

“I know it, sir,” replied Joe. “Colonel Stambaugh 
bade me give you the latest word he had from the 
government. He says the Eastern Indians will not 
be permitted to come here to you.” And then Joe 
gave to Mr. Williams the message from the colonel. 

“I have heard it, too, Joe,” Mr. Williams said, as 
Joe concluded. “Our friend Mr. Ogden, whom you 
remember in New York, has sent me secret copies 
of the treaty which is to be made with the Menomi- 
nees, to purchase their help in this war on Black 
Hawk. Listen ; I will read it to you.” And he read 
from the papers he held in his hand : — 

“‘The Menominee tribe of Indians declare them- 
selves the friends and allies of the United States, 
under whose paternal care and protection they desire 
to continue,’ — that’s some of Stambaugh’s sly work, 
I know, — ‘and though always protesting that they 
are under no obligation to recognize any claim of the 
New York Indians to any portion of their country; 
that they neither sold nor received any value for the 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 


273 


lands claimed by these tribes ’ — No value ! for what, 
then, was the fifteen hundred dollars I paid them long 
ago ? For that they ceded to my Indians a right in 
common to the whole of their lands ! — ‘ claimed by 
these tribes, yet at the solicitation of their Great Father, 
the President of the United States, and as an evidence 
of their love and veneration for him, they agree that 
such of the land described, being within the following 
boundaries, as he may direct, may be set apart as a 
home to the several tribes of the New York Indians, 
who may remove to and settle upon the same within 
three years from the date of this agreement.’ And 
then it goes on to say just how much land we are 
to get — just about what your dear Colonel Stambaugh, 
in such gentle language, announced to me through you, 
Joseph, my late associate — may the father of lies fly 
away with him! Watch out for him, Joe; he’s not 
to be trusted!” 

“That means, I suppose, sir,” said Joe, feeling, in 
spite of himself, a deep sympathy for the man whose 
great plans were thus effectually blocked, “ that you'll 
have no good place to bring your Iroquois to, even 
if they wanted to come. That does seem kind of 
rough.” 

“Rough, Joseph.? It is brutal!” said Williams, 
shaking his head sadly. “But listen to this. Mr. 


274 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Ogden writes me : ‘ I understand that even this con- 
cession to the New York Indians is to be made value- 
less by a clause permitting the grant to your Indians 
to be submitted to them for approval. And if they 
will not accept it/ — which of course they will not, 
Joe; it’s not what they have expected, — 'if they refuse 
to accept and remove to the lands set apart for them,’ 
so Mr. Ogden writes me, ‘then the President will be 
requested by the chiefs of the Menominees to remove 
the New York Indians at once from their country. 
That looks like good-by to our land scheme. Brother 
Williams,’ he adds — as if I had any such sordid inter- 
est as a land scheme in all this matter— I, who, for 
twenty years, have been nourishing and advancing 
this great plan for the improvement of the Indians 
and the establishment of the Gospel in all these 
Western lands ! ” 

“And your empire, sir.?’’ queried Joe. “Does not 
this treaty put an end to it all .? ” 

“Joseph, my son,” replied Eleazer Williams, draw- 
ing himself up as with a pride of conscious superiority 
over governments, treaties, agents, and chiefs, “the 
value of true royalty is in its ability to rise superior 
to all obstacles. You and you alone know my secret. 
Not even my own wife — whose family, too, I believe 
is royal — knows what you do. Will you swear to me 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 


275 


secrecy on that point, Joe Harvey.? I told it to you 
in confidence ; will you keep my confidence .? ” 

“ About your being the king of France, sir .? ” queried 
Joe, almost too unimpressively, Mr. Williams thought. 

“Of course, of course; what else could I mean.?” 
he replied almost testily. “Sometimes, Joe, I think 
your wits are wandering. Evil communications cor- 
rupt good manners, son, you know, and you’ve been 
so much lately with persons who have .not my royal 
though unacknowledged standing that I fear you 
have suffered in your associations with your Lincolns 
and Taylors and Andersons and their like. But do 
you promise to keep my secret until I give you leave 
to speak .? ” 

“Why, certainly, sir. I have never spoken a word 
of it since that day you whispered it to me from the 
one-horse shay,” Joe assured him. “ Fact is, sir,” he 
confessed, “ I haven’t thought much about it. These 
other things seemed more important.” 

“More important! What.? This herding with red 
savages, this living in miserable cabins, when my right 
is a palace and a throne.?” cried Eleazer, carried 
away by his own observations. “Joe Harvey, do you 
suppose I think for a minute of all this miserable 
business, save as a stepping-stone to higher things.? 
I am the Dauphin — a prince of the blood; I am the 


2/6 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


rightful King of France; what value to me is all this 
farce of teaching Injuns and preaching a brotherhood 
in which I do not believe, save as it proves the way 
to getting back my rights, both royal and divine ? 
But let my enemies tremble ! Even the smallest and 
meanest of things I will use to my own benefit. Let 
the government of the United States and its tool 
Stambaugh hamper me all they may. I am still 
superior. Let them take from my faithful Indians 
the rights that belong to them. I can wait. It shall 
all be mine in time. Here are a few who will remain 
true to me. I will hold them together. I will train 
them in leadership. Then, when all is ready, and this 
war with Black Hawk — which can only end in his 
defeat — has cowed all these Western Indians into a 
submission founded upon rage and hatred ; lo ! like 
another Moses I will lead my faithful ones out from 
their prison of a reservation. I will preach a new 
crusade to the unsettled tribes of the West; together 
will we spoil the Egyptians, and the power in which 
I promised you a part shall be mine at last, when, 
with France as my heritage and England as my ally, 
this pitiable republic shall go down in destruction, 
and the Corsican’s dream of an American kingdom 
ruled by a Bourbon shall be made fact by me — by 
me, Eleazer Williams — the new Louis of France!” 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 2^7 

The sweep of the man’s overwhelming confidence, 
emphasized into a spirit of bravado by the apparent 
ruin of his plans and by his anger at the summary 
success of his enemies, had led him farther than his 
caution usually carried him; while his belief in his 
own abilities as organizer and leader gave to his 
vaporing and unthinking words the last thrust that 
was needed to open the eyes of young Joseph Harvey. 

“Why, but that is treason, Mr. Williams! ” he cried. 
“You wouldn’t overthrow the United States, would 
you ? ” 

“ Does a man stop to consider sentiment, boy, when 
that or any other foolish affair blocks the path to 
empire Did Alexander, or Caesar, or Napoleon, the 
Corsican, all of whom had less to build upon than have 
I — the Moses of the Indians this republic has so jug- 
gled and deceived ? Napoleon won the throne of France. 
Why should not I, with better means at hand than 
had he, carry out on this continent the plans he had 
in view.? Why, Joe, — here, where is that French- 
man .? ” He darted from the room an instant, and 
returned, fairly dragging in the unresisting Bellenger. 

“ Here, monsieur, tell this boy what you have told 
me of Napoleon’s scheme. Yes, yes; go on, it is 
safe. He is to be trusted.” 

“ It was after Wagram,” said the veteran of Napo- 


2^8 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

Icon’s wars. “ I was sentry at the tent of my emperor. 
‘ The world shall be mine,’ I heard him say to Duroc. 
‘Prussia, Austria, Italy, Russia — where are they.? In 
my grasp. There, too, shall England be. I will 
strike her through India and in America, and when 
the New World is mine I will carve out of the United 
States and of Canada — which were once and shall 
again be French — a vassal kingdom for some son 
of King Louis — some Bourbon prince to whom it 
belongs of right.’ ” 

Such was the story that, in his imperfect English, 
the worshipper of Napoleon told to the American lad. 

“Huh! he couldn’t have done it,” cried Joe, con- 
temptuously; “we would never let him conquer us.” 

“My emperor knew no such words as ‘could not,’ 
boy,” said Bellenger. “ He would have been emperor 
of the world but for traitors, false friends, and the 
perfidious English.” 

“And I will succeed to his unfinished plans,” said 
Eleazer Williams, keyed to his highest pitch of over- 
confidence. “ I am here ; I am of the Bourbons ; I 
am the heir to this empire, and it shall be mine. Of 
course,” he said, with a forced laugh, as Joe turned 
upon him a look of wonder, “that is but just my 
talk, Joe. Monsieur Bellenger knows what I mean. 
He knows I have French blood in my veins, and he 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 2/9 

knows that every Frenchman — whether Napoleon or 
the Bourbon is his king — hopes to see, at some day, 
these lands that once belonged to France back under 
her eagles once more.” 

Joe felt that he must quickly remove himself from 
this atmosphere of 'treason to the Union, or he might 
forget his earnest words to Colonel Stambaugh and act 
the spy, after all. 

“Come, Mr. Bellenger,” he said. “Colonel Stam- 
baugh told me to bring you back to him. He has need 
of you.” 

“ Ah, so ! and is it with you, coqiiin, thief, kid-a-nap- 
per, that I return } ” demurred the Frenchman, remem- 
bering with rage the indignities that had been offered 
him. “ It is better here ; here are Frenchmen and not 
those miserable Yankees who know not the honor of a 
soldier of Napoleon. Here I stay.” 

“All right,” said Joe, with the shrug he had learned 
from his French surroundings. “That’s your affair. 
I’ve given you the colonel’s message. Only, if you 
stay here talking treason, you know what the colonel is. 
He’ll make things hot for you.” 

“ Pst ! that for you and your colonel,” cried the 
Frenchman, snapping his fingers. “ I am talking with 
M’sieu Villiams now. It is not your business.” 

“You’d best go with the lad, monsieur,” Williams 


28 o 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


advised, recalling his present weakened condition and 
wishing to be freed from this new retainer. “We will 
talk of our matters later; but now it is not advisable, 
and you are better at the fort than here.” 

Joe gave the two a quick, shrewd look. “ Is this a 
new conspiracy ? ” he wondered. 

So, back with him to the fort, rode Bellenger. But 
the relations were still strained between the two, and 
they had few words. Only once did Joe put a ques- 
tion. 

“ Mr. Bellenger,” he said, “ what did Mr. Williams 
say when you told him that fairy story about Napo- 
leon .? ” 

“Fairy story, garqonf It was the truth I tell,” 
the Frenchman replied, “and M’sieu Villiams, he 
believed it like one ge7itilhomme . ‘ Ah ha ! ’ he say ; ‘ it 

may yet be done, my friend. The French did not die 
out with our emperor; there are still Bourbons in the 
world.’ ” 

“ Hm ! ” It was Joe’s only word, and then he re- 
lapsed into revery. Had Eleazer Williams, he won- 
dered, through all the years of his scheming, been 
really plotting treason .? Had he, through the months 
they had been together, been but training him, Joe 
Harvey, to be but a tool in his plots and schemes 
against the honor and glory of the republic. It was 


JOE HARVEY SEES THE LIGHT. 28 1 

well he had discovered them in time. He thanked his 
lucky stars that he had found friends who had helped 
him see the light before it was too late. He wondered 
how much he ought to repeat to Colonel Stambaugh. 
It was one thing to be a spy ; it was quite another to 
be watchful against the foes of the republic. 

Just how he would have decided cannot be deter- 
mined, for he wavered from one decision to another. 
But, before the fort was halfway reached, Joe and his 
comrade met, face to face, Daniel Bread, Cornelius 
Bear, and a dozen or more of the Christian Oneidas who 
were supposed to be on their temporary reservations at 
Duck Creek. 

“Ha, boy! ho, brother!” cried Daniel Bread. 
“Come back! you shall come back with us. You 
know this man who said he was our leader and our 
friend ! He has deceived and tricked us. Come with 
us, that you, who are no Indian, may hear and write in 
your heart the words we would say to him.” 

“Why, Daniel, what’s the matter.?” said Joe; “you 
are Mr. Williams’s faithful friends, or so he says ; upon 
you he depends to carry out his plans. He has but 
just told me he will be your Moses and lead you into 
your Promised Land.” 

“ Moses .? He is no Moses ! ” returned the usually 
contained Oneida, now evidently roused to some deep 


282 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


determination and anger. “He is Judas; he is our 
betrayer. Come ! you shall hear our words.” 

The Oneidas, indeed, would take no refusal. So Joe 
begged Bellenger to go to the fort without him and 
report to the colonel that he had returned to Little 
Kakaulin with the Oneidas and that he feared there 
was trouble brewing for Eleazer Williams. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


A FALLEN MOSES. 


S he rode back once more to Little Kakaulin, Joe 



made several attempts to learn from Daniel Bread 
just what had occurred to thus rouse his indignation 
against his former leader and chief. But the young 
Oneida would give no explanation save to say that he 
had seen Colonel Stambaugh, and that they had been 
deceived. 

Never since the day when, in the Prophet’s town, by 
the rapids of the Rock, the Christian Oneida had taken 
the red wampum and almost dropped back into the 
savagery of paganism, had Joe seen him so excited. 

“ It’s not going to be a real pleasant day for Eleazer 
Williams, I reckon,” Joe said to himself, and then rode 
on in silence. 

The Indian delegation proceeded straight to the 
house at Little Kakaulin. 

“ Ho ! El-ezar ; El-ezar Williams ! come out to us ! ” 
rang out the summons of Daniel Bread, as he smote on 
the closed door with his open palm. 


2^4 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


The door swung open, and Eleazer Williams stood 
framed within it — clean-shaven, smiling, effusive, as 
was his wont. 

“ Ho, ho, my brothers ! ” he said. “You are welcome 
to the lodge of the chief of the Mohawks. What would 
you — ” 

But Daniel Bread broke in upon these words of wel- 
come. 

“ Ho, son of Konante-wanteta ! ” he said, “ and 
who made you a chief of the Mohawks ? Did not we 
and our fathers who have known you since the day, 
many moons since, when your mother bore you in the 
lodge on Horicon.? You, whom the black-coats taught 
in their schools, have taught us ; but what has come 
from their teaching ? We who trusted you have been 
deceived. Out of our homes in the East you have led 
us ; you have promised us land and lodges, peace and 
power, here among the forests and lakes and rivers of 
Ka-ni-ga, which you called our land of promise. Where 
are the lands, where the lodges that were to be ours ? You 
have lied to us, son of Konante-wanteta ; you have sought 
your own and given us nothing ; you have spent upon 
yourself the money that the good, truth-loving mission 
folks of our home-land gave you for our good — for our 
homes, and schools, and churches ; you have told us the 
Great Father at Washington was our friend, and, behold ! 



DANIEL BREAD BROKE IN UPON THESE WORDS OF WELCOME.” 






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A FALLEN MOSES. 


285 


he has taken from us our fathers’ lodges ; he gives us 
nothing in this land of the Menominees and the Winne- 
bagoes. We have heard the tale. We know the truth. 
Son of Konante-wanteta, you have lied ! You are no 
longer chief or leader of the sons of the Ho-den-o-sau-ne! ” 

“ What has my brother heard Who has filled his 
mouth with lies ? ” demanded Eleazer Williams, con- 
trolling himself with all the inherited stoicism of his 
Indian nature, at this unexpected arraignment and con- 
demnation from those he thought his willing tools. 
Even Joe Harvey, who thought he knew the man so 
well, was surprised at the self-possession of his former 
patron. 

“ We have seen the war chief whom the Great Father 
sent to tell us the truth,” replied Daniel Bread. “We 
have seen the treaty paper he would sign with the 
Menominees that sets us aside as those who come 
where they have no right, and must go where they are 
not wanted. Why has the Great Father done this } Is 
it because he knows you for a deceiver and a leader 
into evil, who would make of our misfortune a lining 
for your own pockets, and a hearth for your own home ? 
Answer us ; why did he do this } ” 

“ My brothers,” said Eleazer Williams, waving them 
aside and walking boldly before them, “you are 
fools and blind ; you are moles and bats ! Will you 


286 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


trust one who comes to you with a mouth filled with 
lying as with sand ? Will you sell for promises which 
bring nothing, your faith to me, who for moons and many 
more moons has been your teacher, leader, and friend ? 
How long have I labored to make you men, better 
than your brothers who still are but pagans and children, 
to make you like the white men, in clothes and speech 
and knowledge, fitted to become, like the white men, 
leaders of your race, high chiefs in the new league 
which my brothers of the Six Nations were to lead ? I 
have labored long ; I have given home and health and 
life for your welfare. And how do you repay me ? 
Now, when matters seem dark, — because of the lying 
tongues of the white men and the foolishness of the 
war chiefs of the Sacs, — but when, as I tell you true, my 
plans were never nearer success, you think the black 
cloud the end of all things, and fly to cover like Shin- 
gap-is, the water-hen. You are no better than your 
fathers, worshippers of Ta-wats, the hare-god — you 
who boasted yourselves men and Christians, leaders of 
that new nation of the world-owners you and I were to 
found. Go ! I will find me other men. The sons of 
this land of Ka-ni-ga are worthier than you. You are 
not braves, but women who have no seat at the council- 
fire. I forbid you to work with me. I forbid you to 
listen to other black-coats, or follow other missionaries. 


A FALLEN MOSES. 


287 


I will be great, but not by your help; I shall be a 
mighty Christian chief, but you shall slink back to your 
pagan ways, hateful to your brothers and the sport of 
the white man. Go! you are no longer brothers of 
mine.” 

The effect of their former leader’s stern and biting 
words was threefold. In Eleazer Williams, himself, 
scarcely yet brought back to earth from the imperial 
flight he had taken in his talk with the Frenchman 
Bellenger, his own defiance to his backsliding follow- 
ers wrought him to a pitch of Indian fury ; upon Joe 
Harvey, still not entirely freed from the influence of 
this extraordinary adventurer, there came, at once, 
amazement at the man’s courage under defeat, and fear 
lest he might be swayed back to his leadership ; but the 
Indians, to whose stolidity and stoicism had been added 
the dictations of the stern faith preached to them by 
the very man they would now depose, were but little 
moved by the commands of one who, so they felt, had 
used them ill. The “ugh!” of half-approbation 
quickly changed to the “ho!” of denial, as Daniel 
Bread again took up their case. 

“ And who are you to say to us ‘ forbid ’ and ‘ go ’ .? ” 
he demanded. “For now many moons we have fol- 
lowed your counsels. And where are we to-day.? 
Homeless, wanderers, cast off by the brothers we have 


288 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


left, cast out by the tribes you promised we should lead. 
What promise to us have you kept.? Not one. For 
our faith, you have given us neglect ; for our following, 
you have done us heavy wrong ; for our good-will, you 
have returned but deceit and lies, and now, when the 
Great Father favors those who would persecute us, you, 
too, would abandon us in the wilderness — our money 
spent, the schools, the churches, the religious privileges, 
and the power you promised denied us. You are no 
leader, but a false one; you are no teacher, but a lying 
one ; you are no chief, but a traitorous one. Is it not 
so, my brother .? ” 

And every Indian in his company, to whom the 
Oneida turned in appeal, responded with “ ugh ! ” and 
“ ho ! ” 

“ His mouth is filled with lies,” they said. 

“ Go ! do you say .? ” cried Daniel Bread, his voice 
heavy with sarcasm, censure, and repudiation. “No; 
it is we who say go. Is it you who say, I cast you off .? 
No; it is we who tell you that. Son of Konante- 
wanteta ! we are no longer brothers and companions. 
We dismiss you as our teacher ; we scorn you as our 
leader ; we separate from you, all of us ; and we shall 
warn the Great Father and the agents he sends us, the 
State of New York which must help us, the Church 
and the good black-coats who were to aid us, that, from 


A FALLEN MOSES. 


289 


this day and forever, no longer must they or shall we 
recognize you as having authority or command over us ; 
we forbid you to speak in our name or in any way to 
meddle with our affairs, which are no longer yours. I 
have spoken. Son of Konante-wanteta, we go from 
you forever ! ” 

“Ugh! we have spoken,” echoed every man of the 
twelve, and turning without further glance or hand- 
shake or word of farewell, the representatives of the 
Six Nations, whom Williams affirmed he had “re- 
claimed,” left their repudiated and deposed leader and 
made their way back to their lodges on Duck Creek. 

For an instant Eleazer Williams stood annihilated 
and broken under the scathing indictment of those on 
whose faithfulness, whatever might occur, he had so 
implicitly relied ; he clutched weakly at the horse-post 
before his house and then sank dejected and forlorn 
upon the doorstep of his home. His head dropped 
into his hands, and even Joe Harvey, who remained 
after the others had departed, felt an uncontrollable pity 
and sympathy for this repudiated leader, this fallen 
Moses of an “ emancipated ” race. 

“ I’m awfully sorry, Mr. Williams,” he began, laying 
a hand upon the man’s shoulder ; but Williams, recover- 
ing himself at once, looked earnestly at the lad an 
instant and then, with a toss of his head as if he had 


u 


290 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


flung aside all his dejectedness and the sting of defeat, 
sprang to his feet. 

“Ah! you remain, Joe,” he said. “And you — are 
you true to me yet, even when these fickle fools of red- 
skins play into the hands of my enemies.? Stick by 
me, Joe, and Fll get even with them yet.” 

But Joe Harvey shook his head. 

“No, Mr. Williams,” he said; “I’m mighty sorry for 
you, sir ; for I hate to see any one who has planned so 
much get such a backset as this. But my mind has 
long been made up. It is my duty, sir, as a true and 
loyal American, to have nothing to do with schemes 
that mean harm or disgrace to the republic. I came 
back with Daniel Bread because he asked me to. 
Now I must go back to the fort. Good-by, sir; but 
if I can do anything for you that is right or that can 
really help you to get back into the good graces of the 
Indians, please let me know. I’d be glad to serve you 
in any honorable way.” 

The old defiant air came back to the downfallen 
leader. 

“ Good graces, eh 1 A lot you can do, Joe Harvey — 
you, whom I took out of your humdrum country life 
and tried to make a man of I ” he exclaimed. “ I’ll have 
none of your help. He who serves me must do it 
unquestioningly and because I tell him to. Do you 


A FALLEN MOSES. 


291 


think I am affected by all this balderdash these red 
betrayers have flung at me } Bah ! that for it all ! ” 
and he snapped his fingers in contempt. “ I am still 
commander and chief, for all they may boast and 
brag. There are still those who will side with me, 
even if you and yonder timid traitors go back on me. 
The State of New York, the land company, and the 
missionaries are still my friends. I’ll have these im- 
moral and refractory members of my charge disciplined 
by the Church, and punished by those upon whom 
they depend, so that every sneaking Oneida of them 
will come crawling back to my feet to sue for pardon 
and reinstatement. I’ve more cards to play than they 
know of, or you, either, Joe Harvey, for all the hold 
you think you have upon my secrets and my plans. 
The world shall yet be startled by what I do and say, 
and you, Joe Harvey, whom I loved as a son, and 
treated as my confidant, will live to see how you made 
the great mistake of your life in leaving me when 
fortune seemed to frown, and whined about your pity, 
which I will have none of, and your sympathy, which 
I despise. Go! I wash my hands of you.” 

He turned away and walked into his house; and 
Joe Harvey, amazed, and wondering at the audacity 
of the man, and curious as to what the new plan 
might be with which this fallen Moses of the Chris- 


292 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


tian Oneidas would yet “startle the world,” mounted 
his horse and took his backward way to the fort. 

But on a slight rise in the road, from which he 
could get a last glimpse of the house at Little Kakau- 
lin, the lad turned and looked back. His former 
leader had come again to the doorway and stood 
before it, evidently lost in thought. The western sun 
had lost itself in a cloud ; the gloom of its withdrawal 
left the house in shadow, and the stout, well-built 
figure of the man in the doorway showed dim in the 
distance. But even as, with a final touch of pity, the 
boy turned away, through a rift in the cloud the sun 
burst out an instant and threw a fleeting gleam of 
light across the open door. As if it were the visitation 
of a new shaft of hope, Eleazer Williams turned his 
face toward it, and raising his hands high above his 
head, in true Indian fashion, seemed to welcome and 
make acknowledgment of it. Then the cloud closed 
again, the gleam of sunshine faded quickly, and the 
shadow settled once more upon the figure of the man 
in the doorway. 

Joe Harvey rode slowly down the slope. It was 
the last sight he ever had of Eleazer Williams. 

“ I wonder if that sunburst meant anything ? ” he 
said, with a certain childish faith in omens. Then 
he shook his head. “No, it was sunset, I reckon,” 


A fallen mOses. 


293 


he added, and putting his horse into a gallop, rode 
swiftly to the eastward and the fort at Green Bay. 

The Indians had turned off into their road to Duck 
Creek, and Joe did not catch up with them. But 
when he reached Fort Howard, he found Colonel 
Stambaugh and reported so much of the Indian visit 
and his own observation as might not seem tale-bearing 
or a spy’s report. For though his confidence and 
faith in Eleazer Williams were gone, he would not 
permit himself to make merchandise of the man’s 
misfortunes or disclose the words he had spoken in 
confidence. 

“ He’ll startle the world, will he ? ” said the colonel, 
as Joe closed his report. The boy could not find 
anything in that threat of his former chief but the 
boasting and vaporing of defeated ambition, and he 
was rather attracted by its dramatic effect. “Well, 
other folks can startle as well as the Reverend Eleazer, 
and now that even his Injuns have gone back on him, 
I don’t see that the United States need tremble. He’s 
nothing but a big bag of wind, I reckon ; but the 
sooner we push that treaty through, the better. I’ll 
attend to that after this Black Hawk business is over. 
Oh, speaking of Injuns, there’s a chap here — a French 
chap — who knows Williams well, and has been ask- 
ing about him. He’s out here, too, to look into this 


294 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Oneida business. I had hard work to keep him and 
that firebrand of a Bellenger from coming to blows, 
but I’ve shipped off little Bellenger on a mission to 
the French Indians up the lake, so I reckon there’ll 
be no civil war in France in this part of the world 
just now. I wonder if you know this new chap. 
He says his name is — hullo! there he is; hi, there! 
Monsieur, Mr. — what’s his name — this way, please.” 

And Joe, looking in the direction of the colonel’s 
summons, saw coming toward them “ that other 
Frenchman” — the “French Injun,” as he had called 
him — De Ferriere, “the marquis,” as Mr. Ogden had 
introduced him. 

“ Why, it’s the marquis ! ” cried Joe, advancing to 
meet his former travelling companion when he had 
led his “retinue” on to Washington. “What are 
you here for, marquis ? ” he demanded, shaking hands 
with the swarthy-faced Frenchman who, years ago, 
had transported his nobility to the security of the 
northern forests of the Adirondack region. 

The colonel left them together. 

“See me again soon, young Harvey,” he said to 
Joe. “ I think I have use for you in this Injun busi- 
ness of mine.” 

The marquis answered Joe’s inquiry with a puzzled 
look. 


A FALLEN MOSES. 


295 


“I am come, young sir,” he said, “to see the Injuns 
of Priest Williams; and behold, I found them not at 
— what you call it ? — the Creek of the Ducks, yonder. 
They tell me Cornelius Bear and Daniel Bread have 
fallen out with Priest Williams. And why ? Can 
you tell me, boy ? ” 

Joe could and did. Fresh from the “act of repudia- 
tion ” at Little Kakaulin, the affair was so prominent 
in his memory that he was able to give De Ferriere 
a full and vivid account of the break. 

The Frenchman evinced but little surprise. Long 
contact with the Indians had given him a habit of 
repression foreign to the French nature. 

“Ah, so! It has come, eh? I am not the — how 
you say ? — surprised one. This El-ezar — this Priest 
Williams of ours — he has not been of so much helping 
to his Injuns as to Priest Williams. And where does 
he go now ? What does he say ? ” 

Joe reported this, too, — the first exhibition of despair 
by Williams over his treatment by the Oneidas, and his 
return to his defiant and over-confident position. 

“He says he will yet startle the world, Mr. De 
Ferriere,” said Joe. “How.?” 

“ Bah ! he has said that times in many,” declared 
the Frenchman. “ And how ? Will he perhaps turn 
wild Injun and lead those red men of your West 


296 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


on the war-path, or will he, my friend, spring on us, 
as you would say, his Bourbon dream, and say he is 
a prince of la belle Finance f eh, I ask you, which ” 

“Well, but is he that, truly, marquis.?” queried Joe. 
“ He has told me some very strange things.” 

“ Ah, I believe you, man chery replied De Ferriere. 
“ It is at times that I have thought our Priest Williams 
was crazy — to have what you would call ze bee in 
his bonnet. A prince, he .? The Dauphin perhaps. 
Peste ! My prince is dead, long since dead.” And 
the loyal servant of the old regime doffed his cap to 
the memory of the lost heir of the Louis. “ De Beau- 
chesne has told me so. He has written me thus : 
‘ I saw the little Dauphin dead in the Temple, and it 
is a curse upon me if, possessing thus the truth, I 
should suffer myself to lie.’ Priest Williams, the son 
of Louis the Martyr! Ah! he is a crazy — what you 
call the luna-tic — to say so.” 

Joe nodded. 

“ I never quite believed the story,” he declared ; 
“though, really, Mr. Williams did not tell me much. 
He only made a big bluff about what he was and 
how he would astonish folks with the truth, some 
day. But you’re loyal still to your old king, I see, 
marquis. Napoleon didn’t set you off, as he did 
your friend Bellenger, did he?” 


A FALLEN MOSES. 29/ 

“ My friend ! that slave of the Corsican, my friend, 
you say ” exclaimed the old Frenchman. “See! 
Napoleon, he comes, he goes I Pouf ! it is over, but 
the house of Bourbon remains.” 

“ I ought to be a bit of a Frenchman myself, I 
suppose,” said Joe, “being named for Lafayette, my 
godfather.” 

“Ah, ze marquis! he was a dreamer too,” said De 
Ferriere. “ Like Priest Williams he would have led 
the French to great things, but the smis culottes ^ 
hein ! zey led him ze dance almost to ze death. But 
he was true man, was the Marquis Lafayette, and 
never trusted the Corsican corporal. As for his bee 
in ze bonnet — well ! my friend, it was you American 
people who put it zare.” 

“That’s so,” Joe assented. “But he did well for 
us. He helped us to our liberty. Fm proud to have 
his name.” 

“ It is well ; it is a good name, that,” the old 
royalist said. “ It is not I that have the quarrel 
with Monsieur the Marquis de Lafayette. Mine is 
with that coqum Napoleon who overthrew our princely 
house.” 

“And who said, so Bellenger told me,” added Joe, 
“that one day he would divide up these United States 
and make a kingdom for one of your Bourbon princes.” 


298 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

“Pftl” the Frenchman fairly spat on the ground 
in his contempt, “ and to what Bourbon prince — to the 
Prince Eleazer, perhaps ? Said I not that Bellenger 
was crazy ? And what said Priest Williams to that ? ” 

“He believed it,” replied Joe, “and said he might 
yet be the heir to the empire.” 

“ My friend,” said De Ferriere, solemnly, tapping the 
boy’s breast with an emphatic finger, “ the world is full 
of ze lu-na-tics, and this America of yours is where 
they find the asylum. Heed them not. Be you a real 
American, as I am Frenchman. Yes, I will return to 
my native land. The Corsican is long dead ; my people 
are in their minds of right, is it not } I have had 
enough of the forest and the Injuns — all but my good 
wife — she have the best of the Injun blood. And 
now, she and I, we have farms and land ; but I will die 
a Frenchman. I will sell my possessions and return to 
my estates in France. What is a man’s life, if he be 
not a loyal son of his fatherland.^ I will die a French- 
man. Do you remain ever an American. Ze Injun is 
past ; ze America is for such as you, who can make it 
free and great and noble. Stick you by ze stars and 
stripes, as I will die beneath the Jieur de lis'' 

In the fervor of his loyalty he pressed the boy’s hand 
effusively, and Joe caught the inspiration of his patri- 
otism, 


A FALLEN MOSES. 


299 


“ Yes, America for me, sir ! ” he said. I don’t know 
how I ever came to be led away by Mr. Williams’s 
flighty schemes.” 

“He has a marvel of a tongue, boy, has Priest Will- 
iams,” De Ferriere replied. “ I blame you not. I, too, 
have felt its fascination — what you call its charme ! But 
I have never given him the trust in me ; he and I were 
often at the points of the swords over his ways. Be 
done with him, my son, and live for your country. Ze 
man who follows ze aventiirier — ze adventurer — is to 
wake of himself some day and find of himself a man 
wizout a country. Helas ! and that is sad. I have 
tried it.” 

Joe felt so, too, and when, later, he sought Colonel 
Stambaugh’s quarters for orders, he felt prepared to do 
anything, to go anywhere, if he could but show his 
devotion and loyalty as a son of the republic. 

The colonel’s orders were a bit startling. 

“ Harvey,” he said, “ I want you to go to Washing- 
ton with despatches for the President.” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 


O Washington ! Joe could scarcely conceal his sur- 



1 prise. But he said nothing to indicate this sur- 
prise. Already had he learned the lesson of obedience 
through his manifold disciplines and experiences. 

“Yes, sir,” he said, acknowledging the order. 

But the colonel evidently felt that some explanation 
was due, even to his young messenger. 

“You see it’s this way, Harvey,” he said. “This 
treaty-making business will be something for the new 
Indian agent. Colonel Boyd, to attend to when he 
arrives. I’ve got my hands full of this recruiting the 
Menominee friendlies whom Colonel Childs is round- 
ing up for me. We’ve got about three hundred of 
’em now, and it’s a job to put ’em into condition. But 
one of the arguments we’ve used with the Menominees 
is that the New York Indians shall not be given their 
lands. This is what I want the President to know, or 
there’ll be some sort of a scrimmage between the War 
Department and the Indian Commissioner. That’s why 


300 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 


301 


I want you to make double quick time to Washington 
and get there before Colonel Boyd, the new agent, 
comes West. The Walk-m-the- Water is due to leave 
the Bay to-morrow. I want you to be ready to go back 
in her.” 

“ I am ready now, colonel,” Joe announced. 

“I’ll have my despatches ready to-night,” the colo- 
nel told him. “After you reach Washington you can 
place yourself at the President’s disposal. I shall 
have no further orders for you, and I’m not so sure, 
Joe Harvey, that it is wise for you to come back this 
way, just now. I’m not sure that the vicinity of El- 
eazer Williams, whether he’s up or whether he’s down, 
is healthy for so susceptible a young chap as you. 
He may take it into his crafty head to do some of 
that ‘ startling-the-world ’ business he spoke of, and I 
don’t want to see him gather you in again among his 
tools — I don’t say fools, you notice, Joe. For, after 
all, a bright and willing young fellow like you isn’t 
apt to be fooled twice. Still, I don’t think it is wise 
to place you in the way of temptation. You’ve got 
too good a name and too loyal a lot of forbears to 
be led into this union-splitting, treason-playing busi- 
ness, and I think a good, strong dose of Andrew 
Jackson will be better for you than a second course 
in Eleazer Williams.” 


302 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“ I think Fve had my eyes opened, colonel,” said 
Joe. “Fve had one experience with Mr. Williams, 
and I don’t think Fm likely to repeat it.” 

“No doubt you think so, Joe,” said the colonel; 
“but you’ve been pitying him in his downfall, and 
there was one of those old poet chaps, I believe it 
was, who said ‘ pity is akin to love.’ Eleazer Williams 
is just a fat, lazy, good-for-nothing Injun. But I will 
admit that he is cunning, crafty, fruitful in expedients 
to raise the wind, and unscrupulous as to his way of 
accomplishing it — as you are a living witness, Joe 
Harvey. I wouldn’t believe him under oath ; he is 
dishonest, false, and tricky, and you’ll find, I think, 
that these Oneidas he’s fooled won’t be the only ones 
to bring charges against him. Such a man as that 
is not good company for a boy like you ; for just such 
men as he are the ones to pull the wool over the eyes 
of just such ambitious, go-ahead chaps as you.” 

“But surely he’s done some good, colonel,” said Joe, 
not altogether relishing this severe judgment of the 
man to whom he had once pledged “his life, his for- 
tune, and his sacred honor,” as did the men of the 
Revolution when they signed the Declaration. He 
couldn’t help feeling that Colonel Stambaugh was 
biassed in his opinion, blinded by his dislike, and over- 
influenced by his disbelief in Eleazer Williams. 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 


303 


“I don’t think I’m putting it too strong, Joe,” the 
colonel replied. “It isn’t just my own opinion, Joe; 
it’s that of most cautious people who’ve had anything 
to do with the man. I’ve had a long experience with 
Injuns though, and I will say this for the man : he is 
just what you might expect of a man with such up- 
bringing as he’s had. He’s obstinate and he’s sly; 
he’s cunning and he’s tricky; he’s a boaster and a 
liar; but then, a man reared as he was, amid savage 
surroundings, ought to be judged, I suppose, by a dif- 
ferent standard than — well, such a one as I’d be in- 
clined to set up for you,. Joe Harvey, brought up 
among good, honest white folks and the son of good 
patriots. You see, Joe, no one can, as in the case of 
Williams, fraternize from childhood with Injuns with- 
out becoming an Injun — arid most of them I have 
found to be vain, deceitful, and boastful. That’s just 
what Eleazer Williams is, and it won’t surprise me if 
he does, some day, carry out the threat he made you 
and ‘ startle the world ’ with some new fairy story so 
as to get himself noticed and talked about. But such 
men are not the right kind of associates for a truth- 
loving, well-intentioned lad like you; so I’m going to 
send you into the more bracing air of Andrew Jack- 
son. There’s no such thing as falsehood or cunning, 
at any rate, about ‘Old Hickory.’ He’ll let you know 


304 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


what he thinks without mincing matters, and that’s 
the sort of a man to tie to, even if he is a bit em- 
phatic. A warm friend and a hot enemy ! that’s 
Andrew Jackson, President of these United States; 
and you know where to find him every time. You 
get ready to go East and find him.” 

Joe left the colonel for the few simple preparations 
for his journey. He could not help feeling that he was 
being removed from temptation rather than allowed to 
face it and prove his ability to do so triumphantly. But 
Washington was near home, and he had begun to feel 
that his duty lay by the side of his dear old father at 
Chadd’s Ford, even if his brothers were inclined to be 
disagreeable and “bossy.” 

“I suppose,” he said to himself, “it’s all the more 
credit to a fellow to do his duty when things aren’t just 
pleasant about him, than to have everything smooth and 
easy.” 

From which you can see that Joseph Harvey was 
being moulded by experience into a pretty brave sort 
of a philosopher. 

It was in this frame of mind that, his few arrange- 
ments completed, he was strolling across the “parade 
ground ” of Fort Howard. He was almost inclined to 
pay a good-by visit to Eleazer Williams at Little Kakau- 
lin, and make a final test of his ability to withstand 


WHAT THE president SAiD. 


305 


temptation, when, almost midway across the parade, he 
ran against a long, lanky, honest-faced soldier whom he 
was sure he recognized, as he met the friendly look of 
those half-sad, half-humorous eyes. 

“Why, Cap’n Lincoln!” he exclaimed. “What are 
you doing here ? ” 

“Not cap’n, son, any longer, — well, I vow ! it’s the 
chap named for Lafayette, Joe Harvey, ain’t it.?” cried 
the soldier in greeting. 

And the welcoming hands grasped both those of the 
boy. 

“Not cap’n.?” exclaimed Joe. “Why, what’s the 
matter .? ” 

“ Nothing the matter with me, Joe,” said Lincoln. 
“The matter’s with my men. Remember what I told 
you down at Dixon’s, that I’d come here to fight this 
thing to a finish, and I’d do it, even if I had to ’list as a 
private and march in the ranks. Well, that’s just what 
I’m doing. I’m private Abraham Lincoln now, ‘horse- 
man’ in Cap’n Jake Early’s spy company, — scouts, you 
know. My fellows were mustered out at Ottawa and 
went home. They’d had enough of soldiering, they 
said. Well, so had I, as far as that. But I didn’t go 
into this thing for fun; I went in because I thought 
it was my duty, so I’ve enlisted for the war, — and here 
I am. I’ve been sent across country with special 


X 


3o6 the godson op Lafayette. 

despatches, and I’m on my way back now, to camp. 
Haven’t seen a smitch of fighting yet; but war isn’t 
all fighting, you know. Somebody’s got to fetch and 
carry.” 

Joe looked in admiration upon this long, awkward, 
honorable soldier, and, boy though he was, felt that 
he was seeing a real man, — one who, in simple and 
straightforward fashion, having a duty to do, did it, 
without waste of words or boastfulness of humility. 
To be ready for any service, high or humble, lofty 
or lowly, — that was the story of Abraham Lincoln’s 
life ; and how grandly he accepted burdens, did his 
“ stint,” and died, a martyr to that same sense of duty, 
all the world knows to-day, and hails him as the great- 
est American of the nineteenth century. 

“You’re a good man, Cap’n Lincoln — I’m goin’ to 
call you cap’n, anyhow,” said Joe, enthusiastically. 
“ I’m glad I met you again. I’m off for the East to- 
morrow to do my duty — go home and help my father.” 

“ Good boy,” said Lincoln, nodding his head in ap- 
proval. “ A fellow that has a good old father, such as 
I’m sure you have, can’t stick by him too closely if he 
thinks he’s needed at home. This Western country of 
ours is a great place ; and it’s chock full of opportuni- 
ties for a bright young chap to make his way in, and 
perhaps his fortune. But I like to see him take hold of 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 


307 


his fortune by the right end, and from all I can hear of 
this Eleazer Williams of yours, I don’t think you had 
the right end, Joe. Did you go back to him, and have 
it out with him like a man, as I told you to ” 

“That’s just what I did, sir,” replied Joe, and then 
he told “ Private ” Lincoln the story of his experience. 

“ Well, well ! ” said Lincoln, crossing his long legs, as 
he sat on the log to which they had both dropped for 
their talk. “You did have a siege, Joe. Well, you’re 
better for it, I reckon, and I think Colonel Stambaugh 
has done just right in ordering you East. I like to see 
a fellow, even if he isn’t much more than a boy, face 
what he’s got to, and face it as you did. It helps make 
a man of him. I’ve been through some trying times 
myself, — even when I was younger than you, Joe, some 
of ’em came to me, — but I always tried to do what I had 
to, man-fashion, if I thought I saw my duty ; and, please 
God, I’ll keep on the same way, and I believe it does 
please God, Joe, to see a chap do his duty. He don’t 
generally let a fellow like that fail. For don’t you see, 
he brings out what’s in you — even if he does it through 
what looks like failure ; and failure sometimes turns out 
to be the best kind of success. You see, God looks at 
things different from what we do, and he knows what’s 
best for us and how much we can bear. Well, I must 
be off,” he said, pulling himself to his feet. “ Oh, say. 


3o8 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Joe/’ he added, “I saw your foundling again — that 
little girl, you know. Old man Dixon found her folks 
for her, and I tell you, I give ’em a piece of my mind. 
What do you s’pose the little thing said, though ? Says 
she to me, ‘ I want to see my boy. Where’s my boy ? ’ 
That’s you, Joe. I told her you were fighting Injuns, 
and she said, ‘ Don’t let them hurt him ; he was so good 
to me, I want to see him.’ That’s loyalty for you, Joseph. 
You’re beginning early with the ladies, though, son.” 

Joe laughed with his friend. But his heart went out 
toward the little waif. 

“ I’d like to see her, too,” he said. “ She was mighty 
cute, wasn’t she ? Some day when I come out West 
here, to make that fortune, you know. I’m just going to 
hunt her up and let her have some of my good luck — 
if I have any.” 

“You’ll have it, don’t you fear, son,” Lincoln replied. 
“Just you keep your head, and do what comes to you 
the best you can. Just you have faith that right makes 
might, — not the other thing, — and in that faith just you 
go ahead and do your duty as you understand it, and 
I’ll trust the end to come out all right. Good-by, Joe. 
If you ever get out into this country again, hunt me up 
down in Sangamon County, and we’ll have a good talk 
over old times when you and I, Joe Harvey, fit, bled, 
and died(!)in the war against Mr. Black Hawk.” 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 


309 


One more hand-clasp, and the long, young private who 
had been a captain, but was ready to serve in any way 
that seemed best, was gone. But Joe Harvey never 
forgot him, and strengthened by his good advice and by 
the friendly helpfulness of the man turned to the East 
where now his duty lay. 

The wheezy old steamer Walk-hi-the- Water, which 
did little more than walk in the water of the 
great lakes for a score of years, took the “mes- 
senger to the President” on board at noon next day, 
and after long days of journeying, by many convey- 
ances, Joe Harvey stood once more in the streets of 
Washington. 

He hastened at once to the White House with his 
despatches. 

“A messenger from the Injun country, eh.?” said the 
President, as Joe was shown into the little room that 
was the old hero’s “ den,” and where he found him, as 
he had before, smoking his dearly loved corn-cob pipe. 
“ Well, what you got for me, son .? ” 

Joe handed him Colonel Stambaugh’s despatch and 
made his brief explanations. 

“ O ho ! it’s that treaty business with the Menominees, 
is it.?” the President said, looking from under his 
shaggy eyebrows at the youthful messenger. “ No, 
Colonel Boyd hasn’t gone yet. But he starts in a day 


3lO THE GODSON OF LAPAYETTF. 

or two, I believe. I’ll look into these papers and see 
him about Stambaugh’s advices.” 

Again he eyed the boy sharply. 

“ Pretty young messenger to be taking that long 
journey, aren’t ye } ” he queried. “ But haven’t I seen 
you before ? There’s something about your face that 
looks mighty familiar.” 

“ Remember that day, general, when you marked out 
the new treasury building with your cane,” said Joe, 
delighted to think that he was recognized by Jackson. 
“ I lent you my lucifers to light your pipe, you 
know.” 

The President slapped his knee. 

“That’s it!” he cried. “I thought I knew you. 
I’ve got a right smart memory for faces. You’re the 
chap that was named for Lafayette, aren’t you — some 
relation, or something } ” 

“ His godson, sir,” replied Joe, proudly. 

“ That’s it ; that’s it,” repeated the President. “ Well, 
what you been doing with yourself, son, away out in 
that Western country, — nothing to disgrace your name, 
I hope.” 

“I hope not, sir,” Joe replied, but his heart sunk a 
bit, even as he made the answer. He wondered whether 
General Jackson would think he had disgraced his name 
by going with Eleazer Williams. 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 3II 

Again the President sent that searching glance 
straight to the boy’s face. 

“Hm!” he grunted. “You don’t say that right 
confident, son. There shouldn’t be any hesitation about 
a straight-out answer to such a question. What you 
been at ? Why ! see here ; weren’t you along with that 
fellow that was trying to run the New York Injun end 
of this Michigan territory business — what’s his name 
— Williams ? Weren’t you in his train ? ” 

Joe acknowledged that he was. 

“ And you went out West with him, eh .? ” said the 
President. “ Did you give him my advice to stick to 
his preaching and give up politics ? Oh, you did. And 
he wouldn’t take it ? well, you see where it’s landed him. 
Remember what I told you — that we weren’t going to 
let those Injuns spread themselves, and that I didn’t 
see where your Mr. Williams and you would come in. 
Well, you didn’t come in, did you .? Looks as if that 
parson was going to come out, though — at the little 
end of the horn, too, eh ” 

And the President laughed heartily at his own joke. 

Joe felt that he could not long withstand the search- 
ing questions of this straightforward old man. He did 
noLintend to be misunderstood. If he must make a 
clean breast of it, he felt that he had better do so at 
once, and have it over, 


312 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“ Do you remember what you said to me, general, 
that day when I gave you the lucifers ” he began. 
“ You told me not to take any high-flying chances 
at glory or gold getting — and to look before I leaped. 
I took the chances, sir. I believed in Mr. Williams 
and his great plans for success, and — ” 

The boy hesitated. 

“And here you are, eh.? You took a header, did 
you, and landed in the ditch .? ” queried the Presi- 
dent. “Tell me about it; wait till I light up again. 
There now, fire away.” 

Joe told his story briefly but honestly, while the 
President listened in silence. 

“Um, hum!” the general said, knocking the ashes 
from his pipe, as the boy concluded. “ So that’s it, 
eh.? ’Member what I told you, not to strike out 
until you saw something worth striking for. Well, 
you struck, didn’t you — but, great glory ! what did 
you strike at, son .? The impossible. Did you think 
for a moment that crazy scheme of a great Indian 
confederacy on the borders of the republic would 
ever be permitted.? This land is ours, son, from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific; and no red Injun, blasted 
Britisher, or parley-vooing Frenchman is going to 
get it from us, you mind that. No, sir, and no fire- 
eating, big-talking nullifier is going to stand in our 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 


313 


path either, and try to break up the Union, as long 
as Andrew Jackson is in the saddle. We’re wide- 
awake here, we are ; we know what’s going on. The 
Union will be preserved, as Mr. Calhoun and your 
Mr. Williams will both of ’em find out. There has 
been too much blood and treasure shed to obtain it 
by just such men as your father, the Revolution er, 
and the Lafayette you were named for, and others 
who came after them ; and we won’t let it be sur- 
rendered without a struggle. Surrendered } By the 
Eternal ! it shall never be surrendered ! Our liberty 
and that of the whole world rests upon our main- 
taining the Union unbroken just as much as do 
the peace, prosperity, and happiness of these United 
States. The Union shall be preserved, I say; it 
must be perpetuated!” 

The old hero was fully wrought up now, and was 
striding up and down his little “ office,” his face 
flushed with determination. Joe really trembled. He 
saw how nearly he had been brought to treachery 
and disloyalty. 

But Andrew Jackson had quite forgotten Joseph 
Harvey. His mind was filled with a mightier danger 
than that of the crack-brained scheme of an Indian 
adventurer. To his great and ever dominant loyalty 
to the Union the schemes of those who threatened 


314 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


its disruption were, indeed, the crime of the century, 
and he was ever brooding upon his duty and his 
policy. 

“They’ve passed some sort of an ordinance down 
in South Carolina,” he said, continuing his walk. 
“ That ordinance and the governor’s message are 
rebellion, and war against the Union. The raising 
of troops with' which they threaten to resist the laws 
of the United States is absolute treason. But I’ll 
meet ’em. I’ll put a stop to these proceedings. And 
so will the people. The people of this republic will 
speak in a voice of thunder that will make the 
leaders of the nullifiers tremble, and bring the citizens 
of South Carolina back to the Union they have sworn 
to support. This treasonable work against the Union 
is a blow, not only at our liberties, but at the liberties 
of the world. I will not acknowledge the right of any 
states to absolve themselves at will, and without the 
consent of the other States, from their most solemn 
obligations, and hazard the liberties and happiness of 
the millions composing the Union. 

“Folks call me ‘Old Hickory’; well, hickory is tough. 
The man who runs himself against me has got to 
look out. I’m a forbearing man, up to a certain 
point; but open and organized resistance to the re- 
public I will not countenance. I’ll put it down, or 


WMAT THE PRESIEENT SAlD. 


315 


my name’s not Andrew Jackson. The supremacy of 
the laws shall be maintained if it takes the army and 
navy of the United States and General Scott, too, 
to maintain it.” 

Joe fairly quailed before “Old Hickory’s” deter- 
mined and resistless words. 

“ I wonder where that will land Eleazer Williams,” 
he said to himself, “ and where would it have landed 
me, if I had stayed with him .? ” 

He kept his thoughts to himself, however, and, gradu- 
ally, his excitement worked off, the President came to 
himself, and recognized that he had been expressing 
himself so vigorously in the presence of a boy and a 
messenger who needed attention. He laughed softly, 
as he laid a firm hand upon the lad’s shoulder. 

“ Well ! I didn’t mean to read you all this lecture, 
son,” he said. “ I reckon you don’t need it ; but when 
I get to thinking over the way some folks who should 
be good and loyal Americans are carrying on these 
days, and trying to play with treason, it riles me a heap, 
and I just talk right out. I wish the people of the 
whole country would do so, too. If this thing is 
faced at once and frowned down by public opinion, 
it’ll be better for all hands and may mean the salva- 
tion of the Union. Don’t you ever be afraid to speak 
out, Joe Harvey, if you see a wrong being committed. 


3i6 the godson of lafayette. 

It clears the atmosphere for a brave man to speak his 
mind/’ 

“Yes, sir, that’s the way Cap’n Lincoln did when 
his men bullied the Injun,” said Joe. 

“Who’s Cap’n Lincoln, Joe, and what did he do.?” 
inquired the President. 

Joe told him the now well-known story of Abra- 
ham Lincoln’s protection of the unfortunate; Jackson 
listened and nodded in approval. 

“ Good piece of work, that was,” said the President. 
“ I’ve been in just such positions myself. I saved a lit- 
tle Injun baby on a battle-field down in Creek County 
once, and I’ve never regretted it. I raised that little 
chap to be quite a boy, and I was mighty sorry when 
he died. I thought a heap of him, I did. I tell you, 
Joe, people think I’m a fire-eater and a fighter. I’ve 
had to be, sometimes; but, bless you. I’m ready to for- 
give my enemies, — if they show a proper spirit, — and as 
for looking out for the weak, the defenceless, and the 
unfortunate, why ! bless you. I’m a good deal like your 
friend Lincoln ; I believe it’s a heap like that poet 
fellow says — I learned those lines by heart, I liked 
’em so much : — 

“‘Farewell, farewell; but this I tell 
To thee, thou wedding-guest! 

He prayeth well, who loveth well 
Both man, and bird, and beast. 


WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID. 


317 


“ He prayeth best, who loveth best 
All things, both great and small ; 

For the dear God who loveth us, 

He made and loveth all. 

Joe thought that was fine, and even the President was 
visibly affected by his own quotation. 

“Well, Joe Harvey,” he said, extending a hand to the 
boy, “you aren’t exactly a wedding-guest, but we won’t 
let it be a funeral if we can help it — except perhaps 
for Eleazer Williams and the nullifiers. I’ll say fare- 
well now, and — stop, let’s see — do you go back with 
any reply to these despatches from Colonel Stam- 
baugh .? ” 

He looked hastily over the colonel’s letter. 

“No, he asks for a conference between me and 
Colonel Boyd,” said the President, “ and I’ll send any 
return despatches by the new agent. But what’s to 
become of you, son ? ” 

“ I think I’ll go back home, sir,” replied Joe, bravely 
facing the inevitable. 

“That’s right, son,” said General Jackson. “Home’s 
the best place for any boy who really doesn’t know 
his own mind. You go and talk things over with 
your father. And here — hold on! I’ll give you a 
note to him. You’ve done good service for your 
country, even if you were switched off once by a 


3i8 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


false guide, and your father ought to know how you 
were tempted, tried, and then — did your duty.” 

“You don’t really think my duty is out there in 
the Wisconsin region helping to put down Black 
Hawk.^” suggested Joe, in whom the taste for ad- 
venture had not yet died out. 

“Bless you! no, son,” replied Jackson. “General 
Scott will finish that business up in short measure. 
He’s gone out there with a thousand regulars to take 
things in hand, and I’ll back him against every red- 
skin this side of glory. Those militiamen you told 
me of — Cap’n Lincoln’s men, and those chaps that 
made that disgraceful defeat for Stillman — I don’t 
really blame ’em as much as I ought to. But I’m 
a backwoodsman and a frontiersman myself, Joe, and 
I know how hard it is to lick militiamen into dis- 
ciplined troops. They do just naturally hate to be 
bossed. But they make A i soldiers in time. Look 
at the boys that helped me at New Orleans I They 
were just the same kind, but we got ’em into trim ; 
and then, too. New Orleans was no picnic, and that’s 
what the Illinois volunteers thought this Black Hawk 
business was going to be — when it wasn’t. 

“No, Joe, you go home to your father; there’s 
just as much bravery in being a home guard as 
there is in running red Injuns off the field. Here,” 


WHAT THE president SAID. 319 

he dashed off a few lines and, after sanding them, 
folded the paper and handed it to Joe, “you give 
that to your father with General Jackson’s compli- 
ments, and tell him his son is true to his name; for 
even above the questionable honor of a king — that’s 
what that crazy Williams expected to be, wasn’t it.? 
— he places at last the nobility of an American.” 

He shook hands warmly with Joe, and gave him a 
generous requisition in payment of his services; then 
Joe, thanking him for his kindness and his advice, 
bowed himself out of the room, and the last glimpse he 
had of Andrew Jackson was as he saw the old man 
standing before a map of the Union — so much of 
which he had helped to establish, defend, and win 
by his courage — as if to strengthen his determination 
to keep it “one and inseparable,” in spite, as he had 
declared to Joe, of “Eleazer Williams and the nullifiers.” 


CHAPTER XIX. 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN. 

S O the prodigal returned. 

“ But when he was yet a great way off, his 
father saw him, and had compassion on him, and ran 
and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” 

He didn’t do exactly like the old father in the para- 
ble, of course ; for Captain Harvey, of Chadd’s Ford, 
was an American, while the man in the parable was 
an Oriental, and the ways of Orientals and Yankees 
are not precisely the same. But he did recognize his 
son as, footsore and weary, the boy came tramping 
down the Baltimore pike, and stood at the ford of 
the Brandywine. 

“Hullo, Joe! is that you?” the old man called out 
across the stream. “ I thought it looked like ye. You 
just stay where you be till I come over for ye.” 

And, standing there beside the ford of the Brandy- 
wine, where first he had encountered and listened to 
Eleazer Williams, Joe waited for his father, who drove 
through the shallow stream in a rattling old one-horse 
shay, drawn by a limping roan. 


320 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN. 


321 


Joe recognized the team at once. It was the iden- 
tical rig in which the would-be “king of France” 
rode when he accosted Joe from the bank of the 
stream, and in which, guided by the boy, he had rid- 
den on to the blacksmith’s. 

“ Hullo, father ! ” cried Joe, struggling to control 
his feelings by a show of his old-time fun. “Where 
under the sun did you get that rig ? ” 

“ Why, I borrowed it up the road a piece,” the old 
captain replied. “ Bill Snedeker was bringing it over 
from Chester for a chap ; and, as I was going to the 
blacksmith’s to get your white colt shod, Tom Pyle, 
from down Wilmington way, said he’d passed a fel- 
low back on the pike that he thought looked like you. 
So I borrowed this elegant turnout from Bill, and just 
drove off to meet you. I’ve done it before, boy,” he 
added, “and I’m mighty glad it’s come true this time. 
How be ye, anyway.?” 

He shook hands sedately enough with his boy ; 
but the old hand that had carried a gun at Brandy- 
wine shook visibly as it grasped that of his returning 
son, and the pressure it gave was warm, tender, and 
welcoming. As for Joe, he broke down altogether. 
He just flung his arms about his father’s neck, 
and “blubbered,” as any repentant prodigal of decent 
bringing up would surely do. 


Y 


322 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


“There, there, boy,” said his father, soothingly; 
“don’t take on so. How be ye, anyway.?” 

“Mighty glad to get home, dad,” Joe replied, “and 
as ashamed of myself as a mink in a rat-trap.” 

“Oh, well! that’s all right, Joe. I hope ye ain’t got 
anything to be real ashamed of, cause that ain’t like 
a Harvey,” his father replied. “And, bless ye, other 
boys have run off afore, and come back again. As 
long as you’re glad to get back, and ain’t done noth- 
ing to spile your name and yourself, too, Joe, what’s 
the odds.? I vow I’m glad to see ye. I’ve missed you 
awful. Let’s kiss and call it square.” 

And, fairly drawn out of himself by his pleasure at 
his boy’s return, the dear old father kissed his son full 
on the lips, and Joe Harvey knew he was forgiven 
without question. 

“What do the boys say, father .? Do they know I’ve 
come back.?” asked Joe. 

“No, they don’t know it yet; they may hear of it 
at the blacksmith’s; but don’t you be afraid of them, 
Joe,” the old man replied. “ I’ve been thinking things 
over since I got that note you sent me from Chester, 
and I’ve had many a good, square talk with the boys. 
They didn’t always treat you just right, Joe; I know 
that. I’ve told ’em so ; and, more ’n that, I told ’em 
if ever you did come back while I was alive, I wasn’t 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN. 


323 


going to have you pestered and picked on. You’re 
my son, I told ’em, same as they be, and you had just 
as many rights, and just as much due ye, as they had. 
They’ll be all right, don’t you fret. Besides, you’ve 
seen a lot of the world, and I reckon you know how 
to hold your own now. Where ye been, Joe, and what 
ye been a-doin’ ” 

Joe put his hand in his pocket, and drew forth the 
President’s note. 

“Just you read that, father,” he said; “I’ll drive.” 

He took the reins and turned into the by-road that 
led to the Harvey farm, while his father, adjusting 
his big spectacles, opened the note. 

“What! from Gin’ral Jackson.?” he said. “Well, 
well, Joe I you have seen things.” 

And then he read the “President’s message.” 

“ My dear Captain Harvey,” it said, “ I send you 
this by your son, Joseph Lafayette Harvey, who has 
served his country loyally as a true son of the 
republic, who has learned to withstand temptation, 
to do his duty, and to make his father as proud of 
him and of his name, as is yours respectfully, Andrew 
Jackson.” 

“ By George, Joe I ” cried the old man, enthusiastically ; 
“that’s something to keep, that is. And Andrew Jack- 
son writ it I What’s he mean ? Tell us all about it.” 


324 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


Then Joe Harvey told his father the story of his 
adventures — there, as they jogged up the hill in the 
old one-horse shay, and later, on the broad step be- 
fore the door of his home, where father and son sat 
long in conversation, while the limping roan cropped 
the grass at his will and wondered where he really 
belonged, anyhow. 

So the home-coming was all tnat Joe could desire. 
Indeed, he would have welcomed a certain amount 
of censure, sternness, and criticism as justly his due. 
But none of these came from his good old father, 
who was too happy to have his “Benjamin” by his 
side once again to question his actions or find fault 
with his motives. 

“ I suppose any other wide-awake young fellow like 
you, who didn’t know any more of the world than 
you did, would have done the same thing, Joe,” he 
said. “ But I reckon it’s been a mighty good lesson 
to you. ‘All is not gold that glitters,’ is what your 
copy-book says, you know, and ye’ve found it so, 
Joe, ain’t ye ” 

“Yes, I have, dad,” the boy replied. “I found it 
out for myself, and I learned it, too, from what 
Lieutenant Anderson and Cap’n Lincoln told me. 
I tell you, father, they’re fine men, they are. I’ll 
bet we’ll hear great things of them some day.” 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN. 325 

“You may, my boy,” the old man replied. “I 
reckon I won’t be in the land of the living, though, 
when they get to be old enough to do things. But 
I’ll tell you, boy, it’s because we old chaps — me and 
Lafayette, your godfather, and Gin’ral Jackson, and 
the rest of ’em — stood true to the colonies and the 
Union, and tried to keep up what Washington taught 
us and led us into, that such new fellows as those 
you tell me about, and such boys as you who are 
going to be men in time, will work and act and die, 
if need be, to keep the republic up to the mark, 
defend it from all danger, inside and out, and just 
show the world that there is something greater than 
kings and princes — what Gin’ral Jackson called the 
nobility of an American ! ” 

The years went by; and Joe Harvey, true to the 
lessons of duty and loyalty learned from his adven- 
tures and experiences, became the man and the citi- 
zen his friends had prophesied. 

His old father, the soldier of the Revolution, died 
beside the flowing Brandywine, where, under Wash- 
ington and Wayne and Lafayette, he had, even in 
defeat, helped to stay the invading force of Cornwallis 
and the Hessians, and made Yorktown possible and 
the republic a fact. 

Joe’s brothers, visibly impressed by the story of the 


326 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

boy’s adventures, the great men who had befriended 
him, and the letter from General Jackson, changed 
their manner toward him, and, as their father de- 
manded, “gave the boy a chance.” 

His chance proved a much better one than his 
Western dream of success could have given. He 
farmed the fair acres his father gave him into profit- 
able returns, and, all the more earnest a worker because 
he was so true and good a citizen, became a real 
American, loyal in his support of his government 
through good and evil times, honored by his neighbors, 
and a rising man in the community. 

The tidings of the hopeless war in the West, where, 
amid the beautiful dells and valleys of the Wisconsin 
country. Black Hawk, driven to bay, gave up at last 
in utter surrender and became a prisoner and a 
“ show ” to curious Americans, reached the farm- 
house at Chadd’s Ford through the slow news chan- 
nels of those ante-telegraph days. 

In spite of his devotion to the republic, Joe Harvey 
could not help feeling both pity and sympathy for this 
deceived, misguided, and badgered Indian chief, who 
had saved him from the uplifted hatchet of the mur- 
derous Prophet, and who — his lands, his lodges, his 
tribe, his liberty, all taken from him — had become a 
homeless wanderer, captive, and “peep-show” to the 
white man he had dared withstand. 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN. 


327 


But Joe Harvey lived to learn that even a cour- 
ageous patriotism must yield to the advance of a 
broader and more lasting civilization; and when he 
saw how out of the bloody and sometimes disgraceful 
Black Hawk War came a knowledge of that fertile 
and splendid Western country which too long had 
remained the useless hunting-ground and trackless 
fastness of savage tribes; when he saw the waves of 
emigration setting that way, and how, under the 
care of hardy pioneers and home-making settlers, the 
park-like region of the Four Lakes, the highlands of 
the Wisconsin, and the prairies along the Rock began 
to blossom into a fruitful civilization, he realized that the 
Black Hawk War was really the beginning of a new 
era in Western development, and was ready to find 
a new meaning in the old hymn he had sung again and 
again : — 

“ God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform.” 

Joe Harvey became a home-stayer; but he did go 
West once or twice. He couldn’t help it. He wished 
to observe for himself this wonderful Western devel- 
opment; he was curious to see the trails he had 
travelled in danger and disgrace turned into highways 
along which prosperous homes and growing towns 
were springing up ; his faith was strong enough to 


328 THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 

make him an investor in Wisconsin lands, and that 
investment brought him profit and comfort. 

It brought him something else. It brought him a 
wife. And who do you suppose it was.? Susie, his 
“foundling.” 

Of course he hunted her up; and because he saw 
how promising a child she was, and found that her 
father was dead, her mother married again, and Susie’s 
opportunities for womanly growth rather dubious in a 
poor, over-crowded frontier cabin, he prevailed upon 
the girl’s mother to let him help. Susie was sent 
East to school for her education, and in time — well, 
I don’t need to tell you the story — Joe Harvey 
married her, and, like the “ immortal two ” of the 
old fairy stories, “they lived happily ever after.” 

As to Eleazer Williams, though Joe Harvey never 
saw him again, he did, as he had promised, “startle 
the world.” 

His dream of Indian empire had come to naught; 
his treasonable schemes against the unity and strength 
of the republic had fallen before the breath of prac- 
tical, invincible Americanism ; the tide of white civil- 
ization had overwhelmed and scattered his Indian 
“subjects,” and even the New York Indians he had 
counted upon as his “ nucleus ” of authority were con- 
fined to a small reservation, and utterly refused to be 
guided by or listen to him. 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN. 


329 


Stung by neglect and defeat, Eleazer Williams lived 
on at Little Kakaulin unhonored and almost unknown. 
But, gradually, finding certain people quite as credulous 
and even less practical than Joe Harvey, he conceived 
the brilliant idea of boldly claiming what he had se- 
cretly confided to a few followers like the boy from 
Chadd’s Ford, and almost twenty years after Joe had 
left him, he “ startled the world ” by declaring that he, 
Eleazer Williams, the half-breed missionary of Green 
Bay, was the “lost Dauphin” of France, the son of 
Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, and therefore the 
rightful king of France. 

The news came to Joe Harvey at Chadd’s Ford, and 
while it did not surprise, it did “startle ” him. He had 
almost forgotten the far-away episode of his boyhood ; 
he had almost forgotten the existence of this man who 
had tried to lead him from the path of duty and loyalty. 
But with the tidings of this new “scheme,” all the old 
memories revived, and he knew that the “ adventurer ” 
had made the last grand effort of his life, and had kept 
his threat of the bygone days. 

Of course Joe Harvey did not believe it. But other 
people did; and to this day there are those who still 
say “yes ” to the old question of fifty years ago, “ Have 
we a Bourbon among us ? ” 

But even this last grand scheme of the most remark- 


330 


THE GODSON OF LaFAYETTE. 


able of American adventurers failed, as had his others. 
Eleazer Williams could not establish his claim, and he 
sunk again into obscurity and defeat, — a subject for 
magazine discussion and the debates of curious investi- 
gators, never to become the acknowledged heir of the 
Bourbons, nor the “issue ” that was to throw all Europe 
into war. To-day, Eleazer Williams is given a place 
among the picturesque impostors of the world, one of 
those numerous “ claimants to royalty ” who had really 
nothing to claim and no royalty to prove. 

Joe Harvey lived to see, and understand, that royalty 
is not alone the prerogative of kings, nor nobility the 
property of princes; he discovered that patents and 
decrees do not make a royal soul ; and that as Shake- 
speare says : — 

“Whoe’er amidst the sons 
Of reason, valor, liberty, and virtue 
Displays distinguished merit, is a noble 
Of Nature’s own creating.” 

He was fond, too, of quoting to his children those noble 
and inspiring words of Webster, — the Webster whose 
great speech he had heard, that wonderful “Black 
Dan ” to whom he had given a lesson in bicycling, — “ I 
was born an American ; I live an American ; I shall die 
an American.” 

Joe often found himself wondering what would 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN, 


331 


have been his feelings and condition if the brilliant 
dreams of Eleazer Williams had “ come true ” and 
that wonderful “empire” he promised had been 
established. He knew, however, that such a thing 
was impossible on American soil and that it must 
speedily have crumbled to pieces before the irresist- 
ible progress of American liberty, American man- 
ners, and American expansion. 

When, in August, 1853, Eleazer Williams died “in 
great poverty, suffering from want of attention and 
the necessaries of life,” Joe made it his duty to 
befriend the widow of the self-proclaimed “prince,” 
and to help the son, who, in time, erected a monument 
above the father’s lonely grave. The lesson of 
Eleazer Williams’s life gave him food for quite a 
sermon, and as an offset to the “vanity of human 
wishes” Joe learned to quote, as embodying the idea 
of what may be the real nobility of an American 
citizen, those jubilant verses of Whittier, the poet of 
American freedom, that emphasized the royal pre- 
rogative of the American voter on election day : — 

“ The proudest now is but my peer, 

The highest not more high ; 

To-day of all the weary year, 

A king of men am I ! 

To-day alike are great and small. 

The nameless and the known ; 


332 


THE GODSON OF LAFAYETTE. 


My palace is the people’s hall, 

The ballot-box my throne ! 

To-day let pomp and vain pretence 
My stubborn right abide ; 

I set a plain man’s common sense 
Against the pedant’s pride. 

To-day shall simple manhood try 
The strength of gold and land ; 

The wide world has not wealth to buy 
The power in my right hand.” 

“ I would have been a nice party to set up a throne 
and pose as the heir-apparent of a king, wouldn’t I ? ” 
he would say, and then he would fall back upon his 
favorite story of his godfather, General Lafayette, 
the old hero who, after he fought for America’s 
liberties, never used and never allowed others to use 
his hereditary title of marquis. “ A crown ! what 
would I do with a crown ? ” exclaimed the old hero 
when the people of Belgium, in 1830, offered him 
the crown and the title of King of Belgium; “why, 
it would suit me about as much as a ring would 
become a cat.” 

And then Joseph Lafayette Harvey would laugh 
the merry laugh that kept him young in old age 
and was a sign of the cheery nature that made him 
a true American optimist; and he would tell again, 
for the hundredth time, to the grandchildren who 


THE NOBILITY OF AN AMERICAN. 


333 


clamored about his knees, the story of his boyhood 
days, when, from the forge beside the Brandywine, 
he rode off in the one-horse shay on his quest for 
empire, only to discover that, after all, the godson 
of Lafayette could find no better empire than his 
home on the farm, no higher title of nobility than to 
be just a true American, and no grander heritage than 
to be a loyal and ever willing son of the republic. 



AJV HISTORICAL NOVEL 


A SON OF THE 
REVOLUTION 

IN THE DAYS OF 
BURR’S CONSPIRACY 

By Elbridge S. Brooks 
joi pages. Cloth, $i.yo 


Mr. Brooks knows how to catch and hold the attention of 
boys and girls. In this story of Aaron Burr’s conspiracy he 
is very happy, choosing scenes and incidents of picturesque 
American history and weaving them into a patriotic and stir- 
ringly romantic narrative. The young hero is a fine character 
strongly presented, and from first page to last the interest is 
lively. We heartily recommend the book to our young readers 
as one sure to please and instruct them. — The Independent. 

¥ 

Elbridge S. Brooks has written nothing better than “ A 
Son of the Revolution.” Designed for boys, it is so spirited 
and interesting, dealing as it does with little-known episodes 
in our past history as a nation, that it will gain many readers 
in the ranks of the grown up. It is really as the sub-title 
says, “an historical novel” of the days of Aaron Burr, when 
he was conspiring to create a western empire. A young 
fellow full of enthusiasm and patriotism, named Tom Ed- 
wards, comes under the fascination of Burr, and works with 
him for quite a period before considering his true aims and 
real character. When the day of awakening comes, the fight 
with his conscience is thrilling. No better book for boys 
can be mentioned, nor one so rich in lessons of true patri- 
otism. — The Publisher's Weekly. 



A SON OF THE REVOLUTION 


Elbridge S. Brooks has told in “A Son of the Revolution ” 
a story which will stimulate the patriotism of all young 
Americans. He relates the adventures of an Ohio lad who 
was a relative of Aaron Burr and had implicit faith in that 
brilliant but unprincipled statesman. The story is remark- 
ably well told and it is finely illustrated. — The San Francisco 
Chronicle, 

Mr. Brooks in this volume presents to his readers a new 
field of interest and importance. No one incident in the his- 
tory of our country, as a nation, is so full of the picturesque 
as the wild scheme of treason which stirred the soul of Aaron 
Burr to plot against the country he had struggled to estab- 
lish Every boy ought to know the history of this arch 
traitor. — The Awakeuer. 

¥ 

In this volume the author touches upon a field of interest 
but little known, and concerning which but slight attention 
has been given by historians and novelists. 

Burr’s conspiracy, although not now considered as an his- 
torical event of marked importance, yet, during the period of 
opening up the middle western states was a serious episode 
in the nation’s career. With this period and the events con- 
nected therewith the author has interested himself, and has 
presented to the reader a novel of intense feeling of patri- 
otism and loyalty to the government. 

Coming at this time, when national affairs are strongest 
in the minds of the people, we predict for this story a wide- 
spread success. — Journal of Education. 

¥ 

An historical of Aaron Burr’s time, by Elbridge S. Brooks, 
presenting the story of the adventures of the “young son” 
as faithful facts of history, but in an interesting and inspiring 
way which will hold and help the young reader. — The Inter- 
national Evangel. 






o 





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